微软能买来多少iPhone应用开发者？

    上周五早间，《纽约时报》（New York Times）商业版头版刊登了杰娜•沃斯汉姆和尼克•维费尔德共同撰写的文章《微软自掏腰包充实应用软件商店》（Microsoft Is Writing Checks to Fill Out Its App Store）。两天后，Nokia Lumia 900横空出世。

    Lumia 900是微软（Microsoft）和诺基亚（Nokia）合作的第一个成果，但是，眼看免费手机以及在Windows Phone应用软件商店中提供黄金位置的承诺都不足以吸引不情愿的软件开发商为Lumia 900编写应用软件，微软据称已经开始自掏腰包来承担一部分开发成本。应用软件的开发成本可能从6万美元到60万美元不等。

    据《纽约时报》报道，获得微软资金相助、为Windows Phone操作系统编写应用软件的软件开发商包括：

    • 社交定位网站Foursquare的创作公司Foursquare

    • 流行猫咪网站I Can Has Cheezburger?的创作公司Cheezburger Network

    • 以及《愤怒的小鸟》的出品公司Rovio（请注意弦外之音）

    《纽约时报》的报道称，等到Lumia 900开售时，Windows Phone应用软件商店将有超过7万款软件，包括在线视频租赁服务Netflix、YouTube、气象频道（the Weather Channel）、Amazon Kindle和水果忍者（Fruit Ninjas）。依然缺席的是：流媒体音乐服务Pandora、图片分享服务Instagram以及所有的Zynga社交游戏。

    “我们对目前的产品目录完全不满意，”Windows Phone高级营销经理卡西•麦克吉告诉《纽约时报》。“我们还有改进空间，我们每天都在取得进展。”

    根据最近的统计，苹果公司（Apple）有超过60万个应用软件，而谷歌（Google）安卓系统也有近40万个应用软件。

    译者：早稻米

    A nice piece of reporting by Jenna Wortham and Nick Wingfield landed on the front page of the New York Times Business section Friday morning, two days before the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900.

    When free phones and promises of prime real estate on the Windows Phone app store wasn't enough to get reluctant developers to write software for the new device -- the first fruit of a collaboration between Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) -- Microsoft reportedly starting writing checks to cover some of the cost of development, which can run anywhere from $60,000 to $600,000.

    Among the developers that, according to the Times, have been paid to write for the Windows Phone OS:

    • Foursquare, creator of Foursquare

    • Cheezburger Network, creator of I Can Has Cheezburger?

    • and (reading between the lines) Rovio, maker of Angry Birds

    By the time the Lumia 900 is released, the Times reports, the Windows Phone app store will have more than 70,000 titles, including Netflix, YouTube, the Weather Channel, Amazon Kindle and Fruit Ninjas. Still missing: Pandora, Instagram and all the Zynga games.

    "We are by no means satisfied with our catalog," Casey McGee, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone, told the Times. "That's something we can get better at, and do better at, every day."

    At last count, Apple (AAPL) had more than 600,000 apps and Google's (GOOG) Android nearly 400,000.