[mayconvert]

Let me start off by saying this is a WHAT IF? and I know it would never happen, but I bought a Nokia 640 today (it was on sale)
and after setting it up, it makes me sad when NOT ONE single app I have on my iOS or android phone is available on WP.

So, that got me thinking about this what if...

What if Microsoft went to developers and said "if you make an app for windows phone, you can charge .99 or more, and we (MS) will give you 90-95% back." ( microsoft would need a few pennies to cover the credit card charges )
in other words. if Facebook (Not Microsoft) made an app that was every bit as good as the iOS/Android version, you would have to pay .99 to get it.
Same for every other NAME BRAND / REAL app. Made by the company(facebook), not some 3rd world junk *** copy "that's almost like it" and not some POS web wrap.
Starbucks, any.do, Pinterest, google drive,Clash of Clans, Schwab, google +, angry birds 2, Inbox, google photos, Geico, state farm, and on, and on, and on since there are literally not one single app in the store that I have on my other devices, other than microsoft made facebook, and twitter.

I just named random apps, I know many of you don't care for google apps, but insert any app name YOU want on YOUR phone that iOS and android BOTH have that you DON'T have because the developer won't waste his time for 1% market share.

In other words, you would pay for every single app on WP, but by doing so (let's just say, this is a fantasy here, not real life) it would make developers interested and you would get all the good apps from iOS and Android, with the same quality and support.

I would. I LOVE windows phone OS. but I have to carry my Note 5 or iPhone 6 around to finish the job.

would you pay to get developers?

[Kieran Jeffery]

I couldn't see this working. Most free apps generate more money than paid apps through ad revenue. If you had paid apps with ads, the majority would complain.

Also, having a store full of paid apps isn't attractive, especially to the android crowd. It's already a big put off to many that you've got to re-purchase all your paid apps when switching mobile OS's.

I believe MS is doing everything as well as they can at the moment. They've created a number of paths for developers to easily bring apps to W10M. Universal apps I believe is their biggest selling point here. What they really need to do now though is somehow get the W10 store heavily exposed. It's just too easy to forget it's there on desktop devices. I look at it maybe once a month...

[Laura Knotek]

Many of those apps you mentioned are for business services, not games. Paying for games is not unusual, since many of the iOS/Android games are also paid, not free.

However, I cannot see paying money to my bank, Starbucks, my insurance company, stores I shop at to create apps. I'm already paying for the products/services they provide to me. I'm not going to pay them for their apps.

[xandros9]

There's not enough who will pay for the scheme to work. They'd sooner jump ship.

[GCrane1982]

A better option would be for MSFT to simply pay companies a certain amount each time their app has a unique download. For example they could pay Facebook $0.50 per unique install of their app, this amount may increase or decrease depending on how up to date they keep the app compared to other platform and would be capped at a total payment of $500,000.00. MSFT could also assist with the initial app development/port of the app which could keep the upfront costs down for the company.

I think MSFT have previously paid companies/developers to port apps and also assisted with them porting apps over, however I believe these were once off payments, so once the app was in the store there was no benefit in further development or marketing of the app. With this method the developer would have a vested interest in marketing and keeping the app updated to maximize the payments they receive from MSFT.

If MSFT can write off $6,000,000,000.00 with the Nokia Acquisition they can surely write off $250,000,000.00 to get 500 of the top apps into the Windows store. In the example of Facebook it would see 500,000 unique downloads for Facebook equal to a payment of $250,000.00 from MSFT, which isn't much for them but should cover the cost of marketing and app development. They would also have an additional 500,000 consumers viewing ads and generating other sources of revenue. End result is that Facebook wins through more users and better experience, MSFT Store Wins as there are more apps which should assist with winning more marketshare, Consumers Win as they now have a good choice of quality apps..