Bloomberg Businessweek has reported that Microsoft is offering $100,000 or more to companies to build apps for Windows Phone.
The payment aims to entice developers to create apps for Windows Phone 8 as Microsoft play catch up to other app stores for Apple, Android, and BlackBerry.
Windows Phone chief marketing office Thom Gruhler told Bloomberg that Microsoft currently has around 145,000 apps and games in the Windows Store, although versions of Pinterest and Instagram are still missing for Windows Phone.
Although Windows Phone 8 is missing these two particularly popular apps, Gruhler explains that the store does still contain 48 of the 50 most-downloaded apps across all platforms.
Similar initiatives have been undertaken by Microsoft earlier as well when they offered $100 Visa card reward to developers who brought their apps by 30 June. “Microsoft has been offering $100,000 or more” to companies for building Windows phone apps,” a source was quoted as saying in the report.
Currently, Windows store comprises of around 145,000 apps, which is way short than the figures recorded by Android and iOS when they completed their two years in existence.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
