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If they weren't doing this, I would advocate firing whoever was running dev marketing/partnerships. MSFT needs to jump start its dev ecosystem and using its bank balance is one of the easier tools to deploy.

Now I would love to know how much Google paid Rovio + the other launch partners for their Google+ platform. :)

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Yeah, Microsoft did the same thing with the Xbox. They threw lots of money to developers in a climate when I think most people thought there was no way Microsoft could be cool enough to sell a console, particularly when it was going up against the PS2.

Now, 360 is the market leader.

NYT makes it sound like Microsoft is somehow cheating, but it's wise enough to realize that it needs to invest in order to bootstrap a new platform.

Agreed, the biggest issue highlighted in the new Lumia 900 views (which most are calling a fantastic phone) is missing some of the key apps in the ecosystem.

I don't think the size of the marketplace is the problem, every user has about ten key apps they need on their phone (the trouble being it's a different ten for everyone), but every most of the cases covered will help them a lot.

I expect them to do the same thing with Windows 8 and the store.

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