Microsoft Offering Developers $100 per App Creation
According to a Microsoft blog, the company is offering $100 per app built for the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store.
The cash cutoff per dev is $2,000, so when you've written 20 apps, the money stops. Note that you can't create 20 apps for one store or the other -- you'd have to create 10 for each to get the full amount (it's limited to 10 apps per publisher ID; if you publish to both stores, you have two IDs, hence the $2,000).
The promotion started March 8 and runs through June 30, or until 10,000 apps are published under this promotion. One more thing: you can't publish the same basic app 10 times, changing a button or other minor tweak and republishing it as a different app. Marsman says the "each app you submit to a single platform must be substantially unique and different."
This deal is similar to BlackBerry's recent attempts to gain developer support by guaranteeing they'd make at least $10,000 per app (if the app made at least $1,000 in its first year out, but less than $10,000). It's hard to convince devs to build apps for non-Android or -iOS devices, seeing as how the return is generally a lot lower on those platforms. The upside is that there's also a lot less competition in those app markets.
About the Author
Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.