Easily one of the biggest problems facing those going up against Apple and Google in the mobile operating system world is the fact that iOS and Android completely outclass competitors when it comes to apps.
Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, along with the BlackBerry 10 OS, don't offer an ecosystem anywhere near as diverse as its competitors, and the only way the two can stay in the game is to expand their offerings.
Of course, that's a lot easier said than done. BlackBerry already promised to cut checks to any developer whose app fails to make $10,000 in BlackBerry 10's first year. It was correctly seen as an act of desperation, but then again, BlackBerry was and is desperate. If the Z10 and Q10 don't perform, the company is basically done. Now it looks like Microsoft is also joining the miserable game as it hopes to bolster its Windows 8 and Windows Phone app stores.
Microsoft is now offering developers $100 for every app they submit by June 30. Publish 10 apps and the developers score a total of $2,000.
As The Verge points out, "All apps must comply with the usual certification requirements, and developers must create applications for a purpose other than just launching a web page. Cloned variations from previously published apps are banned from the promotion, and the offer is limited to the first 10,000 qualified entries until June 30th."
Paying developers for apps has never been considered a good sign. In fact, the man who used to be in charge of managing Windows Phone, Charlie Kindel, wrote a blog post saying as much:
"Paying developers to target your platform is a sign of desperation. Doing so means developers have no skin in the game," he wrote. "A platform where developers do not have skin in the game is artificially propped up and will not succeed in the long run."
Still, even though the promotion might not bring thousands of quality apps over to Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Microsoft may very well need it. It once predicted that 100,000 apps would populate Windows Store 90 days after launch, but by the end of January Microsoft only had about 40,000 apps available. There wasn't even an official Twitter app until this month.
BlackBerry, for its part, has been running around claiming that when the BlackBerry 10 OS launches, 70,000 apps will be available. With the BlackBerry Z10 hitting the U.S. soon, it looks like the battle between it and Windows Phone will just get more heated.
