Microsoft recruits for Windows Apps race

Microsoft is so eager to have a panoply of applications for the next version of its Windows operating system that it has lined up design firms, recruited interns and sent engineers on an around-the-world road show to help developers get them built. Unlike Apple and Google, which run the world's largest app stores, Microsoft doesn't have the luxury of waiting for programmers to come knocking when they want to create downloadable games, productivity tools or online magazines for its computer software. [...] the app-building drive. The company has trained more than 80 design firms to aid or build apps for developers who aren't familiar with Windows' new design or design in general, said Catherine Brooker, a spokeswoman for Microsoft. Some programmers remain unconvinced of the need to make games, magazines or other online tools for a software maker more than two years late to the tablet market. Other developers of tablet-focused applications will wait to see whether enough consumers purchase Windows tablets, said Laurent Bugnion, a senior director for European operations at IdentityMine, one of the agencies in Microsoft's program that is working on Windows 8 apps for clients that declined to name.