Microsoft And Nokia To Invest €18 Million In Mobile App Development Over Three Years

Just as the VLC team is passing the hat to make the leap to Windows 8, Microsoft and Nokia have a plan to continue momentum on the Windows Phone platform: money.

It’s a resource that Microsoft has plenty of, and one that Nokia can help direct. Through Nokia’s AppCampus, in association with Aalto University, the two firms will deploy capital along the format that they call a “mobile app accelerator program.”

Today Microsoft announced that it has received over 1,500 applications for the program, and increase over the 1,000 applications received by September. TNW is highlighting the program again as it appears to be further beneath the radar than it should be.

AppCampus was initially announced in March.

Windows Phone, despite sporting over 100,000 applications, is generally faulted – and correctly, TNW wants to add – for not having the same roster depth that iOS and Android enjoy. To that end, Microsoft and its chief mobile OEM partner Nokia want to better stock the lake.

If you apply to the program, and are accepted, you will receive between €20,000 and €70,000, depending, Microsoft claims, “on the complexity of the app” that you have in mind. However, it isn’t just cash that AppCampus will provide, but also “world-class training, coaching, and marketing and distribution support.”

The best part of this is that AppCampus won’t take any equity in your project; this is a gift from two companies looking to make their mark in a difficult field and we the happy victims of their largesse.  If you were looking to get into mobile development, this could be a clear path to it .

Up until yesterday, the general gripe was that Windows Phone lacked Instagram, but today, who knows.

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