Earlier this week, Microsoft kicked off its program that will pay developers $100 per app that they submit for the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. It’s too early to tell how developers will respond to the program, but some analysts say the move seems desperate—and it probably won’t work either.
“It looks a little desperate,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. “It sends the message that Microsoft is having a hard time building out its app categories. And it doesn’t bode well for the Windows Store.”
“Clearly, they’d like to populate the stores as quickly as possible with more apps,” added Ezra Gottheil from Technology Business Research. “But it seems they want to try to pull in the 13-year-olds, because $100 is not at all meaningful to an established developer. Maybe they’re looking for the next generation of kid geniuses, and hoping to find the next killer app that comes out of nowhere.”
