Windows Phone 7 Developers and Missing Payments issues

As Microsoft works towards gaining a significant presence in the mobile space once again one of the chief areas it has to concentrate on is apps and the developers behind those apps. For the most part its an area Microsoft has received positive nods for given how much attention they've paid to it as part of their overall stratgey.

However, recent comments from some of the devs working on apps for Windows Phone 7 paint a picture, in which Microsoft is not trying quite so hard once the devs have been brought onboard. Nicholas Yu, the dev behind Google Voice client, GoVoice, alleges in a blog post that not only has he not been paid by Microsoft yet, but that he has no idea when he will be paid by them.

That would be bad enough in and of itself, but Yu makes the point that he has been receiving requests from users of his app to include push notification support. That extra functionality would require a push server, which costs money, which he hasn't yet been paid and thus the extra functionality can't come. So not only is Microsoft not paying him his due income, they are actually retarding the growth of apps on their own platform in the process.

Its a story borne out by another dev, Justin james, who also says he has not been paid by Microsoft yet. However, James makes the worrying claim that in speaking with Microsoft he was informed that developers can expect to see payouts no sooner than February of next year.