Almost a year ago Microsoft had a “Windows 8 Consumer Preview: First Apps Contest”. Now they’re offering a similar competition for the Windows 8 Phone, and this time with higher stakes.
Just the other day, RIM began offering $100 to developers that port their apps to the BlackBerry 10 platform (see “RIM Pays Mobile App Developers To Kickstart BlackBerry 10 Sales“), now Microsoft does likewise and offers a fully-paid TV ad for the top-voted Windows Phone 8 app.
The move to attract developers is actually good timing for Microsoft. A report came out today that reported on Microsoft Windows 8 RT Tablet sales for the past quarter. The dismal results were somewhat expected as Microsoft sold only about a million of its new Windows RT Tablets in the 4th quarter. Though very small, some analysts still thought they would do at least a bit better than that, with their sights set on somewhere in the area of 2 million sales or so. It didn’t happen
Microsoft surprised many when they chose to promote the Windows RT devices primarily through it’s own outlet sources and didn’t include retailers such as Best Buy until Christmas had almost arrived. We recently referred to Microsoft’s poor marketing decisions (see “Microsoft Chooses To Skip Attending CES 2013 And Samsung Decides To Skip On Selling Microsoft“)It looks as though Microsoft might be learning and taking notes from the competition.Recently RIM chose to offer $100 to developers that currently have apps for other devices (such iOS and Android). RIM’s way of attempting to start off BB10 sales with a running start. Microsoft has chosen to use a version of the RIM scheme to attract developers and has even actually upped that ante. Microsoft is now offering a fully-paid TV advertisement to the lucky developer that makes it to the Top Windows 8 Phone App. The twist surely should inspire some creative programming.
Not only is it a free TV spot, but the advertisement will also be run during prime-time, in North America.
To enter, developers just need to join the Windows Phone developer program and then opt-in once to have all their apps submitted to the contest. Microsoft will be select the top apps based on user ratings in the Windows Phone Store, in addition to app criteria such as how well the app uses Windows Phone 8 latest features.
Microsoft’s official blog post says that, “There will be thousands of dollars in prizes for the developers of the 64 apps that get selected, including a Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone and a one-year free Dev Center subscription.”The contest is now on and all apps that will be considered must be active in the Windows Phone Store by March 5, 2013 to have an opportunity to win. Votes by the public will be cast until April 8. Microsoft will select all finalists and the top app that will get the free television publicity.