Here's Microsoft's plan to use cool products to win back 'elite developers'
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Nadella descried how halo products, such as HoloLens, can be used to lift the perception of other products up.
Nadella was asked about the declining marketshare of Windows phones, which makes them unappealing to developers.
"What you're referencing is what I'd call the elite developers, and a lot of them go to the volume platform," he said. "There's no question that in the case of the smartphone, today, we are not that high in share. Now, with HoloLens we're going to get back a lot of elite developers. And with Xbox becoming basically a Windows computer, we're going to get back a whole lot of developers."
So there it is: Microsoft is going to use the star power of HoloLens and Xbox to attract developers back to the platform.
HoloLens, an augmented reality headset that runs Windows, has been extensively demoed by Microsoft and has been described by Nadella as an important part of Microsoft's future. The device was recently shown off to journalists and developers.
The company still has a way to go before its Windows Store is as heavily populated as the App Store or Google Play. The service has around 350,000 apps, while other app stores have 1.6 million and 1.5 million respectively. However, big-name app developers, such as Uber, have recently released apps for Windows.