Windows Phone 7 New Zealand challenge: Is Microsoft going to steal my application?

No, we won't!

Someone asked me this question after reading the terms and conditions of the competition, more specifically this part:

"Microsoft will judge the entries and in its sole discretion select 10 finalists who will be announced on 8 November 2010.  If you are one of the finalists, Microsoft will contact you by phone for a telephone interview.  You will also be asked to send a copy of your application (XAP file) to Microsoft for Microsoft to test on a Windows Phone 7 device. You grant Microsoft a royalty-free right to use, reproduce, modify and adapt you application for this purpose."

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-nz/gg232536.aspx

Let me clarify something: The only reason we will want your XAP file is so we can test it, see if you've actually built something and that it works fine. The app is yours and will always be yours to publish to Marketplace and profit with that, being the competition winner or not. If you read the paragraph above, you will see it finishes with "for this purpose". All we want is to be able to test it, that's all.

So go ahead, download the Windows Phone Development Tools and join the competition. :)