Courtesy: CNET

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team made an aggressive move last week in the mobile OS market. In an attempt to bring popular mobile applications to Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is offering iPhone Developers CASH to develop games for WP7. While it is still technically a “rumor” because Microsoft will not confirm, many popular iPhone developers have been surfacing their [new] relationships with Microsoft. Multiple sources are reporting that Microsoft is approaching popular iPhone developers with ‘significant cash offers’, in order to motivate them to switch allegiances.

Microsoft’s strategy is genius. In order for WP7 to be [more of] a success upon its release date (still unknown, but i’m guessing July), they need GAMES to compete with iPhone. Cash is King to mobile developers. Why develop apps for the iPhone and wait for revenue, when Microsoft will pay you up-front for your work? If you were approached by Microsoft and get asked to switch mobile platforms, would you do it? What if there was a $10,000 cash sign-on bonus? I’ll answer for you: yes you would switch. Microsoft knows that mobile applications are only as good as the developer that creates them. With this in mind, Microsoft most likely started this campaign as an aggressive move to gain back mobile market share (mostly from Apple). This is very similar to dangling a carrot in front of a horse. I’m not at all trying to compare developers to horses, no that can’t be my main point.  Well in a way, I am. Cash is something that everyone wants, and with the right amount you can “make friends” with almost anybody… even Apple fanboys.

So how many games does the iPhone actually have? Hovering around 200,000 as of this post, the iPhone blows Android, Palm, and Windows Mobile 6 right out of the water. Palm is like a little firecracker that will make your ears ring. Android is like TNT, it can cause some damage.  But the iPhone, at least at this moment in time, is like a Tsar Bomb relative to the other mobile operating systems in regards to available applications.

The competition is getting heated, and it’s getting more and more obvious to consumers like us.  Overall, I’m content with Microsoft paying developers to switch from the iPhone to WP7.  It shows me that Microsoft has not, and will not, bow down to the iPhone.  But at the end of the day, the winner will be the platform that has the most applications available for its users.