Microsoft paying developers up to $100,000 to develop Windows Phone apps: Report

The lack of applications on the Windows Phone Store seems to be hitting Microsoft hard. The technology giant is now paying up to $100,000 to developers in order to build applications for the mobile platform, if a new report is to be believed.

At present, the company is running a "Keep the cash" offer in the United States under which app developers earn $100 for each accepted app published in the store. The offer is valid only for the first 10,000 qualified applications published in the Windows Store and/or in the Windows Phone Store till end of June. However, the limit for submissions is 10 entries per publisher ID and the limit for the money is up to $2,000 per person.

But if rumours are to be believed, Microsoft could be paying way more than that by forking out as much as $100,000 for an application. Bloomberg had pointed this out first stating that the company was "offering $100,000 or more to companies that will build Windows Phone apps." The Windows Phone app store has 145,000 apps and games in total.

While Windows Phone does have an intuitive interface and one that looks great to the eyes, it does lack one thing - applications. With competitors such as iOS and Android offering a bigger variety of apps, many users are more likely to prefer the other two platforms. According to AppBrain, Android at present has 742,009 apps listed on the Play Store while iOS has 900,000 applications, out of which 375,000 are native to the iPad. So for the smartphone market we are looking at 742,009 apps on Android, 525,000 on iOS being juxtaposed with 145,000 applications on Windows Phone.

Clearly, Microsoft is concerned about the stark difference in numbers. Also, a lot of popular applications such as Instagram, Pinterest and Flipboard are still not available on the platform. The company needs to catch up for the OS to gain popularity as well as preference amidst users.