Over 500 webOS developers respond to Microsoft’s Windows Phone offer

By Tom Warren, on 22nd Aug 11 11:43 am with 16 Comments

Microsoft’s offer to webOS developers has been met with strong demand.

Brandon Watson, Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 development at Microsoft offered webOS developers free Windows Phone devices, dev tools and training in a Twitter message on Friday. The offer followed an announcement by HP confirming that it has discontinued its TouchPad and pre phones and will halt all further webOS device development.

Watson revealed that over 500 webOS developers had emailed him within 22 hours of his offer. “Had to rethink the algorithm for responding to all,” said Watson in a Twitter message. It appears that Microsoft’s offer was met with a high amount of demand that was not anticipated according to Watson. WPCentral detailed the contents of an email reply that Watson is sending to webOS developers:

“First things first. Thank you so much for reaching out to the Windows Phone team to signal your interest in bringing your talents to our platform. To be honest, we didn’t expect this level of response, so we were caught a bit flatfooted. It took a few days (on the weekend) to pull all the mails together into one place to allow me to respond in a smart way and not retype every mail by hand. Consider this a first step in building a relationship with the Windows Phone team. We are psyched to have you aboard and to see what your imagination can do on the Windows Phone canvas.”

Watson has focused heavily on recruiting Windows Phone developers and high profile users. He recently bet $1,000 on Windows Phone 7 with the author of the comic strip Dilbert. Watson offered Scott Adams the chance to try a Windows Phone 7 device. If Adams didn’t like Windows Phone then Watson promised to donate $1,000 to a charity of Adams’ choice. Adams was impressed by Windows Phone. Watson has also previously offered Windows Phone devices to notorious iPhone hacker Geohot and the original Windows Phone 7 jail breaking team ChevronWP7.

  • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

    That’s wrong, number of developers contacted Not even WebOS developers got treated as if they were WebOS developers. 

    • Anonymous

      Yeah but at least 500 new developers got to join the MS train and its good.. but I hope they are able to distinguish the real developers from the fake ones. Some just want to have free phones 

    • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

      True, but the way people hear about is is… “free phones for developers” then anyone can just ask

    • http://www.gadgeterija.net Denis Jelec

      As far as I know, Watson asked for those “published” developers – which means he does expect folks to work seriously and by connecting them to local developer evangelists.

    • Anonymous

      they aren’t dumb. they know that. microsoft doesn’t give phones to just anybody who signs up for a developer account. In fact they typically loan them and expect them back. The only ones that get free phones are very high profile developers of apps they really want.

      The bottom line is that whatever the number, more WP7 developers is a good thing.

    • http://www.gadgeterija.net Denis Jelec

      I didn’t quite understand you, could you edit the post/rephrase it somehow? :<

    • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

      Sorry, What I mean is. If you were a developer and contacted that person on twitter, he would treat you as a WebOS developer even if you aren’t one.

    • BucksterMcgee

      In the first response, which is a bulk response, everyone got the same reply back. So yes everyeone even fake WebOS dev’s would get that bulk response, but in the coming days and weeks a more focused look will accurately investigate who really is a true WebOS developers and who is faking it. It’s simply impossible to do that type of investigation instantaneously when they are trying to response to hundreds of people quickly.

    • http://twitter.com/mohapatraj Jayanta Mohapatra

      I think the original post says, if you have “published webos apps”, so the definition is quite clear ..

    • Derek

      Keep in mind that there can be a team of 2-3, or more, devs that released one app on appstore.

  • WebOS

    I think “published” meant that one had an app on the WebOS store, there goes my free phone, I did not have a published app on WebOS Store… :(

  • http://wizardcm.info Matt Gajownik

    This is good news. More developers = more apps. :D

    • Anonymous

      Correct, and that means more innovation, more creativity…and more WPM devices…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Viki-Maverick/100002523433166 Viki Maverick

    Well anyway, I think they’ll max out at 500 cause WebOS wont have more than 500 apps lol.

  • http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon

    I think they should also do a free phone giveaway. Give away ONE phone per day for like a month at every carrier. Not some dumb enter to win contest that gives no one a chance in reality. These phones need to get in to the hands of users. I think when the developers see how great the tools are, that word will spread as well. I’m actually curious about what the “buzz” on the tools is. Where is that story? Should we wait for Mango to even ask?

  • http://weightloss-guides.com/burn-stomach-fat-lead burnstomachfat

    I just can’t wait for those new applications!