Microsoft To Give Away Free Windows Phone to Students In India

India has become an important market for Android ecosystem and while Microsoft still makes money from each Android device sold, the company has launched a special promotional campaign for students to get to start building windows phone 7 apps.

Called ‘i unlock joy’, the campaign is aimed at students who are part of Microsoft’s DreamSpark Program.

All you need to do is that once you register, you can start developing apps (using dev tools) and submit your apps at the AppHub store.

Normally, Microsoft charges $99/year for AppHub program, but is free for DreamSpark student.

Goodies

• If you submit 1 Windows Phone app that gets listed on the Marketplace within the contest period (ends Nov 18th), then you receive a certificate of acknowledgement from Microsoft, a Windows Phone t-shirt and a 2GB USB flash drive.
• If you submit 4 new Windows Phone apps that get listed on the Marketplace within the contest period, then you receive a Windows Phone test device (model and manufacturer decided by Microsoft) in addition to above mentioned goodies.

From Our Appnomy Experience

Students will drive a lot of innovation in the app ecosystem – especially the serendipity part, i.e. build-and-OMG-it’s-a-success, i.e. apps which are really vague by nature (think iFart), but will drive a lot of consumer interest.

In fact, the last Appnomy Conference had a very healthy mix of students and professions, with a lot of technology students attending the event to understand the nuances of app business.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, they have create a huge network of students over the last few years and expect more of ‘Android Vs. WP7’ debate in the coming days.