RunKeeper drops Windows Phone support, use Sports Tracker instead

I used to always go on jogs with a smartphone and a GPS application, but have since moved primarily to the MOTOACTV. Occasionally, I jog with my smartphone too in case I need to be reached on the phone and have switched between several applications in the past, including RunKeeper, Sports Tracker, and Endomondo. As you may know, I recently purchased a Nokia Lumia 900 and went to the Marketplace to find and install RunKeeper. RunKeeper has been in the mobile spotlight recently with their announced support for the Pebble watch. Unfortunately, I could not find it and after conducting a Bing search I found that RunKeeper for Windows Phone and Symbian is no longer being developed or supported.

It is unfortunate that a company removes apps from the Marketplace after having been supported previously, but I do understand that they are developing for the masses and there just isn't enough market share for Windows Phone at the moment. They could have kept the existing version up, but they want to continue to improve the application so pulled it down. RunKeeper also dropped Symbian support and joked about not supporting BlackBerry. They continue to support iOS and Android platforms.

If you have a Windows Phone and need an application for tracking your fitness activities, then I recommend you take a look at Sports Tracker or Endomondo. I personally am a fan of Sports Tracker and am using it now on my Nokia Lumia 900. Sports Tracker started out as Nokia Sports Tracker for Symbian and has evolved into its own company, application, and service with mobile apps for Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Symbian, and even MeeGo! One aspect I enjoy with Sports Tracker is the ability to capture photos while out running and then have them integrated into my GPS track so I can share with my Sports Tracker network or other friends. Since I travel quite a bit, I like to capture photos from all over the world and share them via Sports Tracker. You can also connect the application via Bluetooth to supported heart rate monitors on some mobile platforms.

It's a bit disheartening to see RunKeeper drop support for Windows Phone, but it has helped me focus on just using Sports Tracker across all my devices instead. If Windows Phone continues its growth, maybe we will see them come back to the platform.

UPDATE: I received a very nice email from the folks at Endomondo with a link to their recent blog post that states they have doubled up their Windows Phone team (interesting given that RunKeeper just gave up on the platform). New features in their updated application include:

• Live Tiles that provide instant, convenient access to workout histories and News Feed updates from friends who use Endomondo Sports Tracker.
• A Newsfeed with the latest workouts and activities by friends and ability to comment on each of them.
• User-created music playlists for each workout to provide additional motivation and keep each activity fresh.
• The ability to share selected workouts on Facebook or set up auto-sharing of all workouts.

From the looks of it, I will go ahead and give Endomondo a try again since it has been a couple years and I have expanded my device collection. In addition to Windows Phone, I see that they also have mobile apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile (the older MS OS), and even Java devices so they have all the major operating systems covered.

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