back to article Microsoft to give free TV ad to top-voted Windows Phone 8 app

Microsoft wants to convince more developers to build apps for its Windows Phone 8 smartphone platform, and to do so, it has taken its cue from none other than Research in Motion. RIM's market share has suffered during the wait for it to launch its new BlackBerry 10 platform, but it has managed to stir up a fair number of …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On the Tiles

    "...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..."

    Runner-up prize is TWO Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phones and a TWO-year free Dev Center subscription.

    Thanks! —I'm here all week.

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      Top Rated

      The musical fart app sponsors Coronation Street..

      Voters could have some fun on this one.

  2. Lance 3

    Sucks for the Windows Phone 7, 7.5 and 7.8 users. They must get sick of being tossed under the bus Ballmer is driving.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      how?

      As a user of a lower powered, old phone (HTC trophy) How does this suck for me? Loads of apps still work for my phone and all of it's features still work. It's just new software for new phones that don't work. I've had my phone for over two years nd am due an upgrade anyway.

      1. Lance 3

        Re: how?

        How? It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. WP7 handsets were still being sold when WP8 was released. So the phone was not "old" by any means. So someone that bought one not long before the WP8 launch or before Microsoft tossed them under the bus cannot use any new apps. Also, any app updates will be WP8 only. SO you can't even get updated apps. What was the point of the WP 7.8 update?

  3. djstardust

    Oh WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

    Woop dee dooo ..... hardly a life changing prize!

    Samsung did the same with Symbian development, spent a fortune on dev promotion, competitions etc. then the platform was killed off. Same as the previous WP incarnation.

    No-one wants WP apart from a few geeks and Google/Apple haters.

    Time to move on .......

  4. Bob Vistakin
    Facepalm

    You can smell the desperation

    Please, someone, anyone - write something for this turkey ... anything, even fart apps will do.

    1. Eponymous Cowherd
      Thumb Up

      Re: You can smell the desperation

      That was, rather, my first impression. Sort of opposite to the effect they want.

      The way RT slabs and Phone 8 are being pushed in TV ads doesn't make me want one, it just encourages me to steer well clear. If they are advertising that hard, they must be in trouble.

      And that James Cordon "phone for grown-ups" ad......... WTF! That just says "windows phone, for when you get bored of Fisher Price"

      1. Dave's Jubblies
        Facepalm

        Re: You can smell the desperation

        Seriously? you rate the fact they are advertising hard, to indicate that they are desperate?

        What on earth does that make Apple then? With their wall-to-wall pimping of idevices?

        On your basis, seemingly about to go under.

    2. Miek
      Trollface

      Re: You can smell the desperation

      "I want you to want me, I need you to need me, I'm begging you baby ..." -- Recommended soundtrack

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    QED

    Surely, if it's the most popular app, it doesn't need advertising?

    The apps that need free advertising are the ones languishing at the bottom, written by geeks with good ideas but no clue about people or meerkatting?

    Simples.

  6. Anonymous Custard

    Two scenarios

    Either the top rated app ends up being something like Google's Map app, or Amazon's Kindle app or something like that (MS ending up advertising a competitor), or it gets taken over like the anti reality-TV single campaigns we end up with a popular vote for something completely tangential. Quick somebody, write a Rick-rolling app that Livetiles "Never Gonna Give You Up"...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Two scenarios

      Love it if it were google maps but I can bet you a lot of money that won't happen irrespective of the votes cast.

  7. hplasm
    Devil

    A TV advert

    For cyanogenmod would be interesting indeed...

  8. Z-Eden
    Trollface

    Please let it be youtube or a google search app!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    i don't get it

    Why all the hate?

    I have an android phone and I'm happy with it. But Android has some 60-70% of the market and it's growing. Pretty soon it could be 80-90% of the smartphone market. If people think Google isn't going to abuse a monopoly like Microsoft did, or that it will continue to innovate hard when it's got no real competition, or that because Android is based on an open-source kernel, this somehow safeguards any kind of lock-in, then I think they're deluded. The ecosystem and cloud services that go with it are the lock-in, not the source code to the kernel.

    The best thing that can happen for iOS or Android *users* is that Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 both do well, and create a market with 4 viable platforms. It won't be as good for Apple or Google, because they'll have to work harder. and have a smaller market share (though within a vastly bigger market). But it will give consumers more choice and it will force all 4 platforms to continually improve and innovate.

    As an android user, I'm hoping Microsoft and RIM get their acts together, regardless of what 'crimes' they might have committed in the past.

    1. Anonymous Custard

      Re: i don't get it

      Google will also want to improve their share of the tablet market (the Nexus 7/10 and future bretherin) which is also of course Android based. That may also help to continue innovation in the OS, and with luck also the expansion of the apps-base in the Play Store.

      At the moment whilst there are some apps which have optimisation for the tablet format, there are a lot which don't (but still work there). That drive to catch up with the iPad in terms of market share and app availability could be a continued motivator for change and improvement.

  10. Philip Cheeseman
    WTF?

    How about spending the $1B on reducing the prices?

    Wouldn't a $1B discount on Surface not be a better idea? People aren't going to spend more than an ipad on the surface - Its clear from sales - So why not use that cash to push the price of buying one down to android tab prices? Might get some market share then and then mind share might just work...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How about spending the $1B on reducing the prices?

      Or even just reducing prices for developers, no way am I buying a Tegra 3 device for £500 in 2013 just to see whether my Open Source code ports ok to Windows on ARM and its worth releasing an app.

      1. Mark Allread
        Happy

        Re: How about spending the $1B on reducing the prices?

        But you don't need to do that. I've got apps in the Windows 8 App store despite never having had an ARM tablet to test them on. I just coded against the WinRT API.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: How about spending the $1B on reducing the prices?

          I guess for some apps, its low risk not to test on ARM. I'm using camera APIs, DirectX and floating point none of which can be properly tested in the WP or RT emulators and I suspect the performance of Tegra 3 isn't quite there for me. I considered buying a Surface RT just out of curiousity to see if I could optimise to ARM but the price was too high just for an experiment.

          Its a mystery why Microsoft wanted to make such a high margin selling Surface RT to developers while spending so much on advertising.

    2. Mark Allread
      Thumb Up

      Re: How about spending the $1B on reducing the prices?

      It's a reasonable point. I know all about the Surface and I'd love one. I could afford one too, but they're just not worth that money. Make it about £250 and I'll probably buy two!

  11. Matt_payne666

    all publicity is good publicity... I upgraded my iphone to win8 in November and the current crop of titles is so poor... so much for the 'top x titles are on windows store' no they arnt!!! the current crop of apps look like the zlist apps on android and ios.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    March 5th

    Good news I suppose for someone already developing a cool WP app or someone sitting on their hands with nothing to do for the next few weeks. Nevertheless, perhaps it might make more sense to spend their promotional effort in trying to encourage the 99% of developers who are not doing anything on their platform yet.

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