How Microsoft will Lure App Developers

The future of Microsoft rests on their ability to entice app developers to create the new applications for Windows 8. Their wide range of incentives and offerings are sure to have developers knocking on their doors.

Some of the features available to developers include financial backing, multiple options of programming languages, and permitting the developers to only write the code once for several different devices.

This new operating system strives to intersect the PC and tablet world while appealing to both businesses and consumers.

Although analysts agree that this new OS will require time to be accepted, applications will be the factor that determines its success.

Microsoft has ruled the PC kingdom for years, but now a new mobile landscape brings Apple and Android smartphones and tablets into the same playing field. Thus, their drive to find developers for the new Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is stronger than ever.

While a working team of developers already exist within Windows, their apps inventory only numbers about 10,000 in total. Apple’s App Store, however, contains 700,000.

In an attempt to bolster app development at their recent annual Build developer conference, Microsoft gave away new Surface tablets and Nokia Lumia 920 phones, 100GB free cloud storage on their SkyDrive, and a discount on developer’s registration to the Windows Store.

But perhaps the biggest motivation for developers to jump on Microsoft’s application bandwagon is the offer of more money. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that they will provide 70 percent of the application’s selling price to the developer who created it. Once the application earns over $25,000, the developer will receive 80 percent of the selling price.

This offer sets Microsoft apart from their leading competitors of Android and Apple. Google provides their Android app developers 70 percent share no matter how much the application earns and only recently has Apple raised their cut for their developers to reach the 70 percent mark.

CIO.com discussed this upcoming growth with two current Windows 8 developers and they reported enthusiasm for the wide variety of devices, available developer tools, and Microsoft’s abundant support structure.

The potential for growth around Windows 8 is huge. With the potential for the already 670 million Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 8, the audience for these new applications could be enormous.

Yet despite their large number of already-installed Windows users, the new Windows 8 will be placed in an entirely new playing field due to the rise of tablets and app stores.

According to an app developer at Methylium, Tom Verheoff, “Microsoft realizes it is not the big monopolist now and they know they have to conquer the market again.” This Holland-based app development company has just created Window’s 8 Booking.com app for making online reservations.

He continues by saying that “from an OS perspective on the desktop Windows is still the best” but that “people will have to get used to the Windows 8 interface on the desktop.” It is only “when they adapt they will want it on phones and they will be happy with how files sync between the two,” Verheoff states.

Verheoff also admits that the tablets running iOs and Android continue to be the biggest threat to Windows 8's success. Combining this challenge with the decrease of PC sales means that Microsoft is not as powerful as it once was, yet Verheoff is confident they will still find solid footing in the market.

An independent developer, Jonathan Isabelle, created the Windows 8 Jack of Tools app, an application that includes a flashlight, leveler, compass, altitude, and other “Swiss Army Knife” types of features. He was able to migrate his app by using Windows 8’s RadControls, an app building toolset developed by the application and content management company Telerik.

Isabelle also agrees that the audience for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is smaller than that of Android or iOs, but believes it to be a positive thing for the time being.

He says that the potential of the audience is “very appetizing to a developer.” When he began developing apps for Windows Phone, they numbered in the tens of thousands; now, he says, there “are over 100,000.”

There is also evidence from the industry to back this idea. Forrester predicts that Windows 8 will have a strong pull in the market of conventional and touch devices by 2014 and will capture nearly 30 percent share of tablets by 2016.

Within the new Windows 8, Microsoft is also offering more programming languages. In addition to the conventional languages such as C#, C++, and Visual Basic, they also include certain web development languages like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

This variety of language options gives them an edge over the more rigid iOs, which limits developers to using Objective C. Likewise with Android, Google only supports Java.

Microsoft’s reasoning for their multiple language options stems from their aim to “show the developer community that it is not the old proprietary Microsoft but the new Microsoft that wants everybody on board,” according to Verheoff.

Although Microsoft is expanding their developer pool by allowing more programming languages than their top competitors, Windows 8 still maintains very precise guidelines in order to accomplish the “Metro” design style.

Verheoff makes the statement that the Windows 8 apps all “behave in the same way” as “they all conform to Windows 8 interface features such as the Charms bar on the right side.” While there is not as much room for design freedom, as would be possible with iOs, “you can still build a unique experience with the Windows 8 style,” he says.

Beyond the clean and simple feel of Windows 8, Microsoft is also aiming for inexpensive development. Unlike the $99 a year sign-up fee with Apple, becoming an app developer with Microsoft Visual Studio Express is free of charge.

The greatest promise for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is the multiple platform compatibility. The same apps that run on a PC can also run on a tablet or smartphone, which greatly widens the reach of users for developers. This versatility is a key component that makes Microsoft unique to other major players in the market.

In the case of Apple, the iOs platform only functions on iPads and iPhone. Moreover, the code between the same application on the iPad and iPhone may vary, requiring the developer to adjust accordingly.

Verheoff realizes that the Windows 8 compatibility model will never be completely flawless thanks to adjusting for different screen sizes, but developers will be able to use the same Windows 8 code nonetheless.

In his words, “if you do it right, you can develop one Windows 8 app for four different screens with the same code, and that is exciting." (RP) Link