It's no secret that Microsoft is spending a lot on Windows Phone marketing, and it's certainly made the effort to nurture developers within its platform before, but how can it convince major holdouts to bring their apps across? The answer, according to a report by the New York Times, sometimes remains paying for their development directly, after the company said that it would do so "where it makes sense on a limited basis" before the platform's launch. Foursquare, Facebook, and the Times' app are among those listed in the article as having been created under an outside contract, though the newspaper wouldn't say if Microsoft had funded its own app's development. Holger Luedorf of Foursquare, however, said that the company would "probably not" have created a Windows Phone app had Microsoft not financed the work itself.

Microsoft has 70,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace compared to over 400,000 on Android and 600,000 for iOS. It's debatable how important the exact number is, but Casey McGee, Windows Phone's senior marketing manager, said "We are by no means satisfied with our catalog. That's something we can get better at, and do better at, every day." Last month we saw Microsoft's plans to ring-fence $10 million of marketing investment to promote competitors of apps like Pandora or Instagram that aren't on Windows Phone, but it seems the company is still open to taking a more direct approach.