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At its ongoing Build 2013 event, Microsoft is trying to drum up interest in its Windows Phone platform (as well as its other products). But it has an uphill battle when it comes to attracting the mobile development community.
Although the Windows Phone Marketplace has about 100,000 apps, that total hasn’t grown much so far this year. A recent Appcelerator survey found that less than 40 percent of mobile developers were “very interested” in making apps for Windows Phone. And a soon-to-be-released Forrester report finds that only 10 percent of mobile development firms say Microsoft’s platform is their first priority. Meanwhile, consumers say they aren’t interested in Windows Phone because it doesn’t have enough good apps.
To get out of this mess, Microsoft is making it easy for developers to build apps that run both on its desktop platform, Windows 8, and its mobile platform, Windows Phone 8. ReadWrite’s Dan Rowinski writes, “The idea for Microsoft is that a rising Windows tide will lift all ships. The better Windows 8 does in the PC/tablet sector, the better Windows Phone should theoretically do in the smartphone sector.”
