Microsoft's efforts to woo and support app makers to create Windows Phone apps is having some positive effect. Indeed, the number of apps released for Windows Phone has now exceeded 80,000. However, as a new Wall Street Journal story states, Microsoft is still dealing with app makers who want to make software primarily for iOS and Android.
One example of this problem is Microsoft's dealings with Hemi Weingarten, who has led the development of a popular iOS-Android nutrition app called Fooducate. Despite an offer from Microsoft to put a developer for Fooducate through a week-long Windows Phone app creation bootcamp and a free Nokia Windows Phone device for software testing, Weingarten turned them down, saying, "We decided to focus our energies on the bigger platforms."
Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, admits that the company could have done a better job in marketing Windows Phone to the public. He states:
What we need to do is go invest in telling the Windows Phone story to people around the world...and we haven't done that. When that is achieved, it will start a virtuous cycle with developers.
Some developers feel that Microsoft is doing the right things to help them make apps for Windows Phone. Two of them are Jake Poznanski and Sam Kaufmann, who said that Windows Phone is easier to develop for than iOS or Android. Another plus is that they claim Microsoft is quicker to respond to an app maker's questions than Apple or Google.
Microsoft is also not above making some deals to get popular apps on Windows Phone. One of them is the app for the Weather Channel which is now pre-loaded on some Windows Phone devices. The company decided to reallocate some of its developers from making a Blackberry version of the app to working on Windows Phone. Now 10 percent of their app downloads come from the Windows Phone version, up from just 0.5 percent less than three months ago.
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