We knew that Microsoft was paying developers to bring mobile applications to its just-launched Windows Phone 7 platform but we’re no learning some of the details of what this entailed. Microsoft is really going all out to bring apps to the platform.
PopCap Games, the maker of the highly-popular Plants Vs. Zombies, said it was offered $100,000 straight cash to create a game for Windows Phone 7. The company ultimately turned down the deal because it didn’t want to have to deal with the restrictions. It did bring a version of its Bejeweled lineup to Windows Phone 7, though.
“Whenever you talk subsidy or royalty guarantees, there are strings attached,” Andrew Stein, PopCap’s director of mobile business development, told GigaOm. “We weren’t sure we could meet the commitment but we already identified we wanted to be on there. If the platform succeeds, the dollars we were kicking around the table will be peanuts.”
Foursquare also said that it wanted to wait for Windows Phone 7 to hit about 10 million units sold before it developed one of its check-in apps for the platform but it quickly changed its tune when Microsoft offered to pay for the development. The check-in app launched with the platform and it’s now one of our 25 must-have apps for Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft’s strategy appears to have paid off, as the mobile platform launched with many of the high-profile apps that consumers expect including Facebook, Twitter and Netflix. Heck, Netflix won’t even be coming to Android until 2011 even though Google’s mobile platform has been out longer and has a much, much larger installed base. In the case of Netflix, it also helps that the desktop app was written in Silverlight, which makes it much easier to port to Microsoft’s mobile platform.
I am pretty impressed with the selection of apps in the Windows Marketplace for mobile and applaud Microsoft for taking steps to force developers to get interested in a new platform. Maybe Hewlett-Packard and the MeeGo folks can take a few notes.
