Microsoft Canada To Jumpstart Windows Phone Developer Movement
In a recent report on the state of mobile app marketplaces in 2011, Microsoft is still dragging behind the App Store for iOS devices, and the Android Market.
Since available applications are a huge factor when it comes to consumer adoption, and with only 40,000 applications available, Windows Phone Marketplace is having a tough go of it. A quick search for Windows Phone 7 devices in Canada only comes up with 5-6 devices available across all carriers combined. For comparison purposes, the iOS App Store has somewhere around 600,000 apps, and the Android Market contains about half that (~320,000 apps).
Enter Microsoft’s “Developer Movement”. Running until May 20th, Microsoft Canada intend to reward developers who produce “quality” apps, a fairly ambiguous term, with no real explanation of what they will deem “quality”. the campaign is a follow-up to the Mango App Challenge, designed to entice developers to take advantage of the newly released Mango update (Win Phone 7.5).
The prizes are as follows:
Publish 1 Quality app, you get to choose:
- A Kinect™ Sensor for Xbox 360®
- 10,000 Microsoft Points
- Monster® Beats™ Headphones
- A 1TB External HD
Publish 2 Quality apps, you get to choose:
- A Windows® Phone 7
- A $500 Gift Voucher
- 35,000 Microsoft Points
- An Xbox 360® with
- Kinect Bundle
Publish 3 Quality apps, and your apps will be considered for publicity across:
- The Xbox Newsletter
- The Xbox Live Dashboard
- MSDN Website
- MSDN Flash Newsletter
- Canadian Developer Blog
