With Windows Phone 7 being Microsoft’s last ditch effort to salvage any semblance of relevance in the smartphone market, the folks at Redmond understand that in today’s market, you can’t just get by with a snazzy UI and sexy hardware. You need apps, good ones, and a lot of them.
The only problem is that developers aren’t focused on Windows Phone 7 development at all. Rather, nearly all developer attention is directed squarely on the iPhone and Google’s Android OS.
So what’s a company worth billions to do? Why wave some of that scrilla around, of course.
Pocketgamer is reporting that Microsoft is courting developers to port successful iPhone apps over to Microsoft’s new platform with promises of cash up front.
Amounts are said to be substantial, although not enough to tempt the developer in question. Because Windows Phone 7 is limited to Silverlight or XNA Framework (C#) development, the cost of reworking its games from C++ remains too high.
Microsoft may try and create development environments that make the porting process much more seamless, but as the article points out, the results of such efforts are often “patchy.”
Related: Does Redmond have a leg up on Apple when it comes to mobile gaming?
Wed, Jun 16, 2010
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