MacDailyNews Take: Google does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Apple. Google is a derivative iOS maker with nary a presence outside the U.S. The day iPhone goes to multiple U.S. carriers is the day Google would rather not think about.
Jordan continues, “One developer has told PocketGamer.biz that Microsoft is contacting successful iPhone developers, offering them upfront cash to port their games to the new platform.”
“Amounts are said to be substantial, although not enough to tempt the developer in question,” Jordan reports. “Because Windows Phone 7 is limited to Silverlight or XNA Framework (C#) development, the cost of reworking its games from C++ remains too high.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bzzzt! Wrong answer, Mr. Ballmer, but we hope you keep right on playing!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Wandering Joe” for the heads up.]
(As Nelson Muntz)
Ha, ha!
Pay to play…how sad that M$ has resorted to this has come to this…just to get ahead.
At some point, a sane CEO would have to question the ROI of paying people to notice your me-too platform. How long will you need to keep paying developers to code for you, or handset makers to make phones for you? Good thing Ballmer’s still in charge, so it won’t occur to him that this might be a bad precedent to set, as both may simply stop once the payola stops.
Ballmer innovation, Bungie style.
I got 4 words for you….. I Love this Website!!!!
Micro$haft is opening their fourth retail store here in San Diego at the Fashion Valley Mall on June 24th, the day of the iPhone 4 launch. The only way they’re going to be able to attract customers is to give away tickets for some event.
I may just stop by there to see the response. There may be a crowd there opening day but after that? I predict a ghost town.
@ malpaso_man
—Wait—did you say “their fourth retail store here in San Diego”—even Apple doesn’t have four there—wow!
The question is how much is Microsoft willing to pay for a fart app?
Looks like the shoe is up the other butt this time: People have been paying Microsoft to play their “games” for years now…
While it is sad that Microsoft has to resort to bribing developers, what else can they do? And Microsoft has the money to spread around, so this is an obvious move.
The folks at Apple were very smart. First, they put a desirable device out there unlike anything else at that time. They pretended that Apple really didn’t want third-party native iPhone apps and told developers to create web-based apps. But during that first year, they finished work on the iPhone OS SDK (for third-party developers) and App Store infrastructure (which was tacked onto the existing iTunes Store).
Then, Apple released iPhone 2.0 with the App Store. At that point, there were already tens of millions of iPhone users, just waiting to buy apps. Hundreds of developers signed on to the platform immediately, because there was money to be made from the existing customer base on Day One.
Compare that to what Microsoft has to do just two years later. They have to launch Windows Phone 7 as a platform. Thanks to iPhone, it is now an expectation that a smart phone platform must have an app store; they have to simultaneously launch an app store. But since there are zero potential customers before the Windows Phone 7 launch, why would a developer jump in unless Microsoft paid them enough up front to make it worthwhile?
So what did you expect Microsoft to do? Unlike Palm, Microsoft has money…
We’ll see if it works as well as the bribes that they paid to get people to use Bing!
I just don’t understand why Ballmer still has a job.
Steve Ballmer couldn’t get a date in a cat house with a $1,000 bill rolled and tucked over his ear. Steve, change the programming code to C++, double the offer and try again. If that doesn’t work, give them a blank check after you made the change to C++.
And Steve, next time tape the $1,000 to your face with a post it note, “More where that came from.”
Microsoft could incorporate the phone with gaming to compete with Gameboy, PSP and (heh, right) the iPhone. If Microsoft was smart, they’d tie it into their xBox 360 platform and bring in the gaming community from that pretty large user base who live in their parent’s attic.
Apple should get “smarter” (heh) and remake that Apple TV. Retool the thing ground up. They gotta fill in that box with the question mark. I heard the response at the D8 conference Steve had, but I think there is still a way to make a compelling device by adding internet, apps store functionality, DVR capability, GAMING and etc. by bypassing the cable providers box. Give it Blu-Ray functionality and have it look like a razon-thin stereo component.
@ken1w, it’s not that we think Microsoft should be doing something different. You’re right — they’re doing what they gotta do, and it makes sense to use their cash instead of just sitting on it.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t ridicule them anyway.
On a more serious note, the lesson here is this: For too long, Microsoft didn’t care about innovating. They counted on being able to enter a market late (after it had grown to a useful size) and by sheer force of money, blow past the innovators and dominate the market. It didn’t work with the iPod, and that should have given Microsoft (& Ballmer) serious pause. But they didn’t learn their lesson, arrogantly blowing it off as a fluke. And now they are paying (literally) for their arrogance and lack of vision. If they had a culture of innovation, they might have a chance at competing with Apple, but they don’t, so they have no chance at all. Do I have any sympathy for Microsoft? Not a shred. They had their fifteen minutes of significance; that’s all they deserve.
Well it worked to get Halo away from Apple and the Ace Combat franchise away from Sony….sniff. You guys are always picking on me…sniff, sniff – shuffles off. I am not fat, I’m big boned! Ma!
Man it must be nice to have that automatic income coming in day in day out. Otherwise, these stupid, idiotic payola techniques would bankrupt most companies.
@Steve B.:
Hey, we’re just kidding, honestly! All of us KoolAid-drinking Apple cultists are actually just incredibly jealous of you and your incredible success at Microsoft! Apple’s marketcap blew past yours only because of a dastardly fifth-column conspiracy which allowed Apple to infiltrate every department and sabotage all those wonderfully innovative products which Microsoft has produced in the last decade, like . . . um . . . uh . . . Oh! Yeah, there was the Big-Ass Table! Suh-weet! Obviously, a $10,000 bathtub-sized computer should have sold like hotcakes, so the only explanation is those dastardly Apple moles! Honest! Rob Enderle said so, and he’s a sneaky SOB, so it must be true! So you have nothing to regret! Your product and marketing strategies have always been top-notch, so don’t change a thing! Well, maybe one little change — start a counter-intelligence division, and set up a reward system, so every single employee can profit from informing on the subversive activities of their fellow employees. That will do wonders for productivity! Honest! Enderle told me so!
Yep, Microsoft is in a bind of their own making. Remember Ballmer saying not to worry since app developers would port their apps to all the top 4 platforms, presumably including WinMo. Now that Win7 is new with no legacy apps, no installed base, they have to bribe developers to port their apps.
If they were smart, they’d make all those WinMo 6.5 apps work in Win7, even if they suck cause they’re slow, just so they can say they have 2000 apps at launch.
Didn’t they learn from the xbox, that overspending to get into the action can make break-even impossible?
But if your game doesn’t sell or work well and you come to MS to get paid be prepared to duck when the flying chair comes your way.
If I were approached, I’d be like the disgruntled employee who was let go then asked to come in as a consultant becuse they have no clue what you do. Sure I’ll port over my iphone app, for 10k an hour!
All those people who thought Apple were going to destroy Microsoft with the Mac were wrong. Apple will destroy Microsoft with iOS.
@Webmasters apprentice
MS PAY for a fart app?
HAH. With Ballmer on board all they need is an open microphone under his chair. DONE.
No payments, buyouts or theft necessary. How un-Microsoft THAT would be!
If the Mac is a 1/2-ton 4×4, Windows is a garbage truck.