So badly that it's giving everyone attending its Build 2012 developers conference a Surface tablet/PC, 100GB of free cloud storage via SkyDrive, a free Nokia Lumia 920 Windows 8 phone and a discounted developer's registration to the Windows store.

The company also announced the availability of a software developer's kit for Windows Phone 8.

ESSENTIALS:

HELP:

The goal is to get developers to buy into the Microsoft mobility vision -- that applications can readily be written to run on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 machines, share resources via SkyDrive and make money for developers to boot.