Flipboard arrives on Windows Phone a year late by mistake without flipping feature

Nokia promised a Flipboard Windows Phone app more than a year ago, and it finally arrived in the store for a short period of time today. Despite the long delay, the app debuted without the key feature that attracted users to the app: flipping. The Windows Phone app simply slides onto the next article, rather than a flipping page like the iOS and Android equivalents that have been available for years. It’s more Slideboard than Flipboard.

While it’s missing a big feature, it appears the Flipboard release today was a mistake. Flipboard claims that an "incomplete build" was released, and that a "more polished" version will be made available soon. Regardless, the rest of the app appeared to be fairly feature complete with options to share, search, like, and comment. It’s not as elegant as the iOS and Android versions thanks to the lack of the flip animation, but the layout is nearly identical for article pages. Although it has been delayed for more than a year, the early build today was also missing support for 512MB of RAM Windows Phone devices, an odd omission given the popularity of devices like the Lumia 520. Once Flipboard is officially re-released these issues may be rectified, but for now the long wait continues.

Update (6:30PM ET): Flipboard claims the version released today was an "incomplete build" and has pulled the app from the Windows Phone Store. This article has been updated to reflect this.

@jamesofilmiont This is not the official release. That was an early, incomplete build staged on the store as a placeholder.

— Jon Virtes (@FlipboardCM) September 25, 2014