Microsoft’s Senior Director, Todd Brix, has told Bloomberg today that the company is providing financial incentives ranging from free tools and test handsets to funds for software development and marketing to developers to build Windows Phone 7 applications. Microsoft is in some cases providing revenue guarantees.

“We are investing a lot to attract developers big and small to Windows Phone 7 to let them understand what the opportunity is and provide as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform,” Brix said. “We’re open for business and we want to work with them.”

It seems that the majority of the commenters and bloggers are getting things twisted a little bit here. No where did Microsoft confirm that they are “throwing loads of cash” at iPhone devs to switch to Windows Phone 7, like it has been rumored before. People need to understand that this is called developer relation and that it has always excited on the console market (MS is doing exactly the same thing with XBOX for example) and any other Software sector. One thing you have to realise is that applications like the official Facebook app for Windows Mobile and Zune HD or the Twitter application for the Zune HD aren’t even developed by MS! They are developed by a software company named Matchbox Mobile who also develop Symbian, Android and Brew applications. Microsoft isn’t making it rain on iPhone devs folks, this is just standard developer relation.

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