WebOS death may breathe life into Windows Phone 7 -- 1,000 webOS developers express interest in it

Microsoft wasted no time in capitalizing on the death of HP's webOS -- the company has already reached out to webOS developers, and 1,000 of them have so far expressed interest in developing for Windows Phone 7. That could be a key part of breathing life into Microsoft's struggling smartphone operating system.

Brandon Watson, director of Windows Phone 7 for Microsoft, sent this tweet out on Friday, targeting webOS developers:

To Any Published webOS Devs: We'll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc.

Today, he tweeted again, saying that nearly 1000 webOS developers have been in touch, and are interested in developing for Windows Phone 7.

Ars Technica notes that Watson has previously been aggressive in courting developers. The site says of Watson's latest offer:

Similar offers have been extended to high-profile developers on other platforms, including iPhone jailbreaker George "geohot" Hotz. Watson has also offered Windows Phone hardware to celebrities that have publicly berated their iPhones or Android handsets.

One key to a smartphone's success is the number and quality of apps available for it, and Windows Phone 7 lags well behind both Android and iOS when it comes to apps. If Microsoft can build a large, healthy ecosystem of developers and apps focused on Windows Phone 7, that could go partway towards helping it compete in what increasingly seems like a two-way race between Android and the iPhone.

Courting webOS developers, by itself, won't save Windows Phone 7. But it's as good a starting point as any, and could pay off when Nokia introduces its Windows Phone 7 lineup.