One thing Microsoft under­stand more than most is that the future of any plat­form is con­tin­gent on devel­op­ers sup­port­ing it. In fact, the company’s CEO scream about devel­op­ers has become its own meme. Apple, on the other side, has long man­aged its devel­op­ers rela­tions through it annual devel­op­ers’ con­fer­ence and related online cen­ter. The two com­pa­nies lis­ten to input from their devel­op­ment com­mu­nity and respond by bring for­ward fea­tures that help those devel­op­ers succeed.

If they understand that developers support is the ticket to get traction, Microsoft will have a chance to overtake Android. For the second spot, of course.