I don't see anything wrong with asking Microsoft to contribute. At this stage in Windows Phone's lifetime, it's probably a win-win situation. Developer covers

I don't see anything wrong with asking Microsoft to contribute. At this stage in Windows Phone's lifetime, it's probably a win-win situation. Developer covers some or all the development costs (to minimize the risk of porting to a platform with significantly less users than iOS and Android) Microsoft gets another app in their store - and seeing as they contributed, they can probably also mandate a higher standard. They also get 30% of every purchase. The developer probably shouldn't have worded it like that though - keep the financial stuff behind the scenes.