Smartphones are the new phone of today, and majority of people now own one. These phones allow you to download different applications including games, news, weather, etc, but most people don't have the newly introduced application, called Bubblegum. Bubblegum is an application that allows you to edit your photos on your phone and upload them up to Web sites such as Facebook. The reason for why most people don't have this application is because it is considered an app for a nascent market. This is people who have the new Windows 7 software inside their phones. Because the platform is new, developers need to learn more about it before writing many of those apps. In order to do this, Microsoft has decided to take a very unusual step. Microsoft has decided to relax a strict rule that they have had, and let employees moonlight in their spare time. The employees will keep the resulting intellectual property and most of the revenue, as long as the second job is writing applications for Windows Phone 7 based devices.
Microsoft is not being quiet about this process. They are throwing pizza parties for those employees willing to help, and are giving free Windows 7-based phones to all employees in the 19 countries where the phones are available. The major downside to this, is that if an app doesn't catch on, there is no money in the process for the employees who had taken up their leisure time to help. This possibility has made this incentive less attractive to the employees.
Some seem to think that Microsoft shouldn't be cheering their employees on that are helping with this development. Most companies want their engineers to give their all into their core jobs. Microsoft, though, says that they did this change in policy so developers could work on this project in their spare time, and still have the financial benefit and outcome of the work. The incentive has been part of the pull to get this work done, and so far, 840 applications have been published. It is said that Microsoft's new rules fit the broader rethinking of how large companies manage research. Not only are they rewarding their employees for working in their spare time, but they are also keeping that energy to catch up in the mobile market.
If Microsoft is going to do this in order to further themselves and catch up in the mobile market, it doesn't really matter what other companies think. In my opinion, the other companies are jealous of what Microsoft has thought of to better their company and their products. They obviously need to change things up in order to stay ahead and not fall behind other leading mobile phone companies, in their advancements to win over people's vote on which company is best.
Article: Moonlighting Within Microsoft, in Pursuit of New Apps
by: Anne Eisenberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/business/27novel.html?ref=technology
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