By now everyone has seen the video of Microsoft’s CEO Steven Ballmer shouting the word ‘developer!’ at the top of his voiceover, and over again. Microsoft is now repeating that cry, but in a different tone, and to individuals instead of packed conference rooms.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team is waging a war to bring development talent to the platform, knowing full well that a mobile line in today’s world without a strong developer community is moot. Little did we know however, until today, just how dedicated they are to the task.
Over the weekend there was a storm in a teacup after a developer wrote apolemic letter to Blackberrydetailing his attempt to write an app for the forthcoming Playbook tablet. After fighting with what he deemed a Dantesque process designed to inflict misery upon developers, he gave it the boot. RIM had topublicly respond.
Whether the developer was being too whiny or not, Microsoftpounced. Microsoft’sBrandon Watson, who is part of WP7 developer outreach, found the disgruntled coder on Twitter and offered to shower him with goodies. It worked:
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Watson went on to explain why he went after @jamiemurai:
Even if we build the platform one developer at a time, that’s one more developer than we had last week. Every developer matters. Every. Single. One. I effing love my job.
And that is how Microsoft plans to claw its way back into the world of mobile.
Story byAlex Wilhelm
Alex Wilhelm is a San Francisco-based writer. You can find Alex on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can reach Alex via email at alex@thenextweb(show all)Alex Wilhelm is a San Francisco-based writer. You can find Alex onTwitter,and onFacebook.You can reach Alex via email atalex@thenextweb.com
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