Microsoft Attempting to Recruit App Store Developers for Zune HD?

[kas23]

Sure it is possible that Microsoft could do this, but for this particular story, if you wrote an App, you would be proud to port it any other platform, regardless of any rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, especially if you were enticed with a "bucket of money".

This should have been page 2, IMHO.

I totally agree with you. An iPhone App developer is not exactly out to better mankind. They developed the App to be sold, to make money. It would be financially immature for a business person to automatically turn down a chunk of money to produce a piece of software that is not going to infringe on rights or harm others. This reeks of a fanboy PR spin.

It's actually pretty smart for any company to pick out the apps they're most interested in, and pay those developers to port them and/or give them extra help.

Apple did the same thing.

Yeah, but when MS does it, it's somehow considered negative.

 

[P-Worm]

I guess the only reason they're not doing it is because radio can hurt the iTunes Store profit.

The iTunes store isn't that profitable. It's meant to sell iPods.

P-Worm

 

[cleanup]

Yeah, but when MS does it, it's somehow considered negative.

It's a Mac forum. There are a lot of mindless Apple zealots here who just got their first iMac.

Anytime there's a Microsoft news story, it gets a bit tedious wading through all the anti-Microsoft, pro-Apple, omg-it-looks-like-an-iPhone bullcrap posts.

 

[army91c]

I think that thing looks sweet, don't need one, wont buy one but I like the way it looks for sure.

 

[Small White Car]

This reeks of a fanboy PR spin.

What's the 'spin?'

Microsoft offered a developer money to write his program for the Zune.
He declined.

That's the whole story! What's the 'spin' in that? I'm having trouble finding it.

EDIT:

Yeah, but when MS does it, it's somehow considered negative.

Oh, is that it? I'm sorry, where does it say that in the article?

Are you getting the comments confused with MR's reporting? Do you think they should put things on page 1 or page 2 based on what they thinks the comments might be?

Because I think that "Microsoft is planning Zune Apps" is a page 1 story.

 

[AidenShaw]

Somebody lures the (paying) developers with:
- excellent hardware
- excellent OS
- excellent SDK
- successful store model
- excellent usability for the end user (i.e. excellent chance the end user get to buy and use more and more Apps)
- in a word, a successful and revolutionary project

Somebody else needs to bribe them...

Right...

iFund to Offer $100 Million in Seed Money to iPhone Developers

posted by arn on Thursday March 06, 2008 04:34 PM​

One of the announcements at today's iPhone SDK event was the creation of the "iFund" by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The iFund promises $100 million in venture capital to invest in companies developing applications and services for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch...​

No, Apple didn't "bribe"....

 

[optophobia]

I would like apple to put in a radio function as well though. I guess the only reason they're not doing it is because radio can hurt the iTunes Store profit.

I don't think so otherwise there would be no streaming radio stations or Pandora apps approved....

 

[Project]

It would be financially immature for a business person to automatically turn down a chunk of money to produce a piece of software that is not going to infringe on rights or harm others. This reeks of a fanboy PR spin.



Yeah, but when MS does it, it's somehow considered negative.

You are implying that this particular dev (and I have a fair idea of who it is) has the skills/capability to start coding in .NET/XNA

 

[Small White Car]

Right...

iFund to Offer $100 Million in Seed Money to iPhone Developers

No, Apple didn't "bribe"....

Do you not know what VC is?

That doesn't have anything to do with Apple.

 

[Shiner]

Right...

iFund to Offer $100 Million in Seed Money to iPhone Developers

+1

Damn i was looking for the same website!! Anyways it looks like a decent player for microsoft. OLED looks amazing and I would love to hook up my iphone to the TV and play back 720p. I already have the appletv but it would be pretty cool on the road. I just hope apple takes notes and adds all the function to their ipod touch.

OLED screen
Tegra processor
HD output
Add camera and video
Mac OS

Perfect ipod.

 

[killerrobot]

You rarely get money for nothing. What did Microsoft want in return?

They wanted an app ported over that would help create more demand for their product. I can´t imagine it would run that much differently than with Apple's app store. The more people buy it, the more money the app developer and MS make.
I think its total BS that they would offer him "buckets" of money upfront. Like you said, you rarely get money for nothing.

 

[SpinThis!]

People lust over the hardware but really it's Safari that's the killer app on the iPhone (among other things). Apple's implementation and Webkit is easily the best web browsing platform available.

If the Zune browser sucks, well, that's pretty much it. Even some of my M$ friends who butter their bread supporting Microsoft have iPod Touches because the browsing experiencing is so much better. Mozilla mobile is still essentially alpha and Opera Mini is a joke of a browser. (Letting the server render the content?!)

And HD radio? Please. I'd much rather have commercial free pandora or streaming shoutcast any day. Over-the-air radio is pretty much dead to me. Unless you listen to public/talk radio, I don't see the point. Even then, radio is moving towards the Internet anyway.

 

[Cynicalone]

It doesn't look bad at all really. I'm not going to throw out my iPod Touch's for it. But if you had a PC I suppose it might be worth a look. I honestly have never used a Zune so I have no idea how the interface works. I suppose there is no way to sync music/videos to it on a Mac?

 

[kas23]

What's the 'spin?'

Microsoft offered a developer money to write his program for the Zune.
He declined.

That's the whole story! What's the 'spin' in that? I'm having trouble finding it.

Yeah, I don't exactly believe this happened outright. Sorry for being skeptical. There's more to story and the author, who is clearly biased, is spinning the story. I don't have any evidence of this, but in true internet forum form, this is just a hunch.

As for the negativity around MS "bribing" developers to develop for the zune, I'm not talking about the article. I'm refering to some of the responses I am seeing in this tread.

You are implying that this particular dev (and I have a fair idea of who it is) has the skills/capability to start coding in .NET/XNA

I certainly don't know how to code in .net/xna, but if MS offered me a "bucket of cash" to do so, I sure as hell would learn.

 

[Axl Rose]

honestly...that zune ui is far more sexy then the iphones for me....if it had a phone in it id instantly drop the iphone....the only apps i use are games...and we all know zune hd will get those

 

[AidenShaw]

Do you not know what VC is?

That doesn't have anything to do with Apple.

So, you think that Apple had nothing to do with an announcement of a venture fund during the Iphone SDK event?

I've got a bridge to sell....

 

[Voidness]

The more the merrier, I think. Why are people rooting for a monopoly? Apple already controls too much of the MP3 and smartphone market.

Um, 13.3 percent of the smartphone market share is a monopoly?

 

[Small White Car]

I think its total BS that they would offer him "buckets" of money upfront. Like you said, you rarely get money for nothing.

Yep. People should remember that years ago Apple approached the developers of a popular MP3 playing program to have them turn it into iTunes.

For various reasons that didn't work out and Apple went with their second choice. It's a long story, but those guys had their reasons and were just trying to do what was best for themselves.

It's easy to say "you should have jumped at that chance!" but there are usually lots of aspects to the story that we just don't know about.

So, you think that Apple had nothing to do with an announcement of a venture fund during the Iphone SDK event?

I've got a bridge to sell....

It was investor's money. They invested it hoping to get a return on that and make a profit.

In this story it's Microsoft's money.

They are totally different things. Just because Apple let them talk about it on their stage doesn't somehow make them the same. (By the way, nice try of changing your argument from "they're the same thing" to "Apple was involved." I never said Apple wasn't involved because that wasn't your original argument.)

Look, I have no problem with what Microsoft is doing. This is smart for them. But to call those two things the same is just not correct.

 

[manu chao]

What's the 'spin?'

Microsoft offered a developer money to write his program for the Zune.
He declined.

That's the whole story! What's the 'spin' in that? I'm having trouble finding it.

Kas23 believes the story is fabricated or only partly told to create the impression that MS has to pay for people to develop for them.
The 'spin' part is telling an incorrect or incomplete story.

However, kas23 is himself doing a lot of spin himself. By calling the story 'spin', he basically says that Apple fans are using immoral measures to smear MS. kas23 thus creates negative emotions towards Apple. But he does so based on a non-declared insinuation that somebody is lying. By not calling it an outright lie he avoids being accused of accusing other people and he avoids the questioning of the logic and likelihood of being true of his interpretation.

 

[Small White Car]

Kas23 believes the story is fabricated or only partly told to create the impression that MS has to pay for people to develop for them.
The 'spin' part is telling an incorrect or incomplete story.

Well, thanks. If that's true it makes more sense.

I think that's a strange thing to think, though, since I think this is a good idea for Microsoft! So I'm wondering why he'd think it's fake.

 

[Hattig]

"in exchange for "a bucket of money". He turned them down"

Oh dear, why would anyone do that?

 

[BVeritas]

No Camera

Since the new iPod Touch will have a camera for photos and video, who's going to buy a Zune.

 

[iphones4evry1]

The Zune HD is going to rule the world
in second place, behind Apple.


*I develop useless posts for macrumors forums. Microsoft offered me "a bucket of money" to port my useless posts over to zuneHDrumors forums. I turned them down.

 

[Oscartapia]

Expected

As always Microsoft can't do anything by their own, they have to be always copying Apple. And what they call always an innovation, for example in this case, they say they will sell a product similar to the iPod Touch or iPhone but cheaper, and of course, looking into the excellent apps from the iTunes Store ... but not to be released today, or in the next weeks, but near the end of the year. Apple never makes any announcement of this kind for their hardware, in fact we get to know of them because of leaked info; they just make a presentation when it's ready to go out to the market. And meanwhile Microsoft says they're gonna have this Zune HD near the end of the year it's very probable that Apple will be showing us something better in just a few weeks.

 

[*LTD*]

ZuneHD = too little, too late.

Once the new iPods arrive this thing'll be dead in the water. No apps, no phone functionality (we're already moving away from iPods and toward iPhones - a convergence of devices. MS is way too late.) Yet another "me too" attempt by MS that's about 3 years overdue. It's rather hard to care about the Zune HD at this point.

This isn't even competition. It's just sad. You can't arrive with an "adequate competitor" to the iPod. Just like with the iPhone, it can't be on par or adequate. It has to be vastly superior from the get-go and offer an entirely new experience. It's the original Zune all over again. It mirrors the Zune scenario exactly: a late attempt (years late) to duplicate the features of the iPod with one or two distinguishing features that simply aren't enough to turn the situation around. Total yawnfest. MS going into this with ZERO mindshare doesn't help, either.

Ms can't design. MS can't market. MS can't do any meaningful R&D in the consumer sector that someone hasn't been already done for them. This point, of course, won't affect sales. The existence of the iPod and Apple's abilities in this area, however, will.