Microsoft underwrites smartphone apps - Business - The Boston Globe

Playing for keeps; also see Microsoft Banks on Mobile Apps (WSJ)

"It is even going so far as to finance the development of Windows Phone versions of well-known apps - something that app makers estimate would otherwise cost them from $60,000 to $600,000. The tactic underscores the strong positions of Google and Apple, neither of which have to pay developers to make apps.
When Microsoft offered to underwrite a Windows Phone version of Foursquare, the mobile social network, Holger Luedorf, Foursquare’s head of business development, did not hesitate to say yes."

Microsoft underwrites smartphone apps - Business - The Boston Globe