Ever since Windows Phone 8 surfaced, Microsoft has been rather aggressive about ensuring plenty of good apps end up in the Windows Phone Store.
While the WP Store doesn’t have the same amount of apps as the competitors, it has well over 100,000, which isn’t at all bad considering how short of a time the OS has been on the market. Sure, a good chunk of those apps were originally made for Windows Phone 7, but nonetheless Microsoft has made it a priority to push Windows Phone 8 much harder than they ever seemed to do with Windows Phone 7.
Now Microsoft has announced a new Windows Phone app related contest called the “next App Star” competition. So what is this competition all about?
Basically the top 64 apps submitted in the contest are getting special prizes, including a Nokia Lumia 920 and a Dev Center subscription free for one year. The top winner gets an even more epic prize: their app will star in a national Windows Phone TV ad.
Microsoft has done a great job recently in bringing in app developers for Windows Phone 8 and even Windows 8. A big part of this success is that they are finding ways to get these developers exposure in ads and other promotional ways.
If you are a Windows Phone developer, you have until March 5th to submit your app. According to the Windows Phone developer blog:
..we will judge the app submissions for the contest based on an equal weighting of user ratings and app quality, including your implementation of new Windows Phone 8 features, like Live Tiles. We’ll narrow the field to 64 entries to participate in a head-to-head, bracket-style competition with public voting. Over the next several weeks of voting the field of 64 will be narrowed to 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, and finally the grand prize winner.
Microsoft might not be the biggest player in mobile apps, but they certainly seem devoted to changing this position go forward.
