Is Microsoft reaching out to hotshot iPhone app developers in hopes of making Zune HD a new applications paradise? It appears so, thanks to reports of developers who claim contact with Microsoft and have said they've been promised a "bucket of money" to develop new apps for the Zune HD.
Microsoft's Zune HDs, which will arrive on Sept. 15 and are available for preorder now, have garnered plenty of headlines. But even with Zune HD's sleek design, hot features, HD capabilities and lower-than-Apple price tags, it lacks a "wow" factor that would give Zune HD the seriously competitive edge needed to take down Apple and its market-dominating iPods.
After the inarguable triumph of Apple's App Store and the popularity of mobile device apps in general, maybe Microsoft took a long look at Zune HD and thought "apps and games, now."
That's the suggestion, anyway, from tech pundit (and Apple lover) John Gruber over at Gruber's blog, Daring Fireball. In a Friday post, Gruber surmises Microsoft's about to get app crazy, thanks to a response he said he's received following earlier comments that Zune HD's "biggest shortcoming is that it's just a media player and Web browser; no apps, no games."
"After my post, I got an e-mail from the developer of an iPhone Twitter client," Gruber wrote Friday. "He was contacted by Microsoft a few months ago with an offer to port his app to the Zune in exchange for 'a bucket of money.' He turned them down, but assumes, as I do, that Microsoft reached out to the developers of multiple popular iPhone apps."
One unconfirmed report does not a high-profile Microsoft app push make, but it makes sense, doesn't it? Given the popularity of mobile apps and Zune HD's potential -- however small -- as an iPod challenger, it's an easy mark.
