On: Will the real app millionaire please stand up?

A quote: "For those who have never heard about it, AppCampus is an initiative by Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University that grants 20,000 to 70,000 Euros per Windows Phone application. You apply to the program and, if you get approved and deliver the bits according to specification, you get the grant and you still own everything (all of your shares, IP, etc."

It's easy to measure the true potential of a mobile OS -- pay attention to its creators' desperate offers of money to develop apps for it.

They are trying to get some momentum and solve chicken-and-egg. Consider this a marketing effort.

> They are trying to get some momentum and solve chicken-and-egg.

Perhaps. I think they're trying to overcome the platform's innate disadvantages. Reasonable people may differ.

> Consider this a marketing effort.

When someone tries to pay me to use their product, all my alarm bells go off at once. :)

> When someone tries to pay me to use their product, all my alarm bells go off at once. :)

I believe it's widespread enough practice to hand out devices to developers willing to make applications for new platform. $75k free grants, well, not so often, but if they can afford it and it helps them to catch up with other ecosystems faster, why not.