Appcelerator's
Mobile Developer Survey
shosw that plans to develop for iPad have decreased slightly but are still strong.
The new developer app interest has Android and iPhone neck and neck (iPhone 87%,
Android 81%, followed by iPad at 53%).
Blackberry has doubled from 21%
developer support in January to 43% in March, while Windows Phone has
nearly tripled from 13% to 34%.
The survey may skew towards iPhone and Android because Appcelerator supports those platforms.
On the other end of the spectrum are the mobile platforms in decline.
Palm, at only 17% in January (but ahead of Windows), fell further to
14% saying they were very interested in the platform in March as
financial troubles gave rise to developer concern. Meego -- the newly
branded effort by Nokia and Intel -- came in at 12%, and Symbian at just
16%. One developer remarked that his priorities were driven by
"marketplace success and how long the platform will be around."
With the race for first place tightening between iPhone and Android
and with the showdown for the enterprise looming, the need for a short
and long-term, cross-platform development solution has never been
greater.
Taken last week from a pool of Appcelerator's 33,000+ application
developers, 1,028 developers responded about their plans to prioritize
iPad development within an increasingly fragmented and competitive
landscape.
When Appcelerator
first surveyed its developer base prior to Apple's iPad
announcement in January of this year, interest in the platform was
overwhelmingly high. Fast forward two months, and interest remains
strong, but off the wild enthusiasm in January: 80% of developers now
say they are interested in building an iPad app within the first year
compared to 90% in January. When asked about overall interest in iPad
as a development platform, 53% responded that they were 'very
interested' -- third behind iPhone and Android. As a point of reference,
Amazon Kindle, surveyed for the first time, has only 12% of developers
claiming a similar level of interest in its recently announced SDK.
In follow-up interviews, Appcelerator found that moderating iPad
interest was primarily due to a lack of a few features originally
thought to be included in the iPad, such as a camera and support for
multi-tasking. Moreover, developers with over 1,000 employees cited
having an iPhone, Android, and/or Blackberry app as critical,' while
only 36% said they were very interested in the iPad. On the other end,
54% of developers with 10 or fewer employees said they were very
interested, as small companies look to claim a first-mover advantage in
the App Store.
As far as developer plans around iPad, respondents cited eBooks,
entertainment and media applications, business applications, medical
applications, and education applications as likely candidates for
planned apps on Apple's new device, consistent with January's results.
Increased competition among mobile platforms features a two-horse,
tightening race between Android and iPhone. In January, 86% of
developers were very interested in creating apps for the iPhone and 68%
were very interested in doing so for Android -- an 18 point spread. That
spread has closed to just six points in the current survey (iPhone 87%,
Android 81%, followed by iPad at 53%).
And while iPhone, Android and iPad are still the top application
development candidates for developers, two platforms have made
significant inroads with developers. Blackberry has doubled from 21%
developer support in January to 43% in March, while Windows Phone has
nearly tripled from 13% to 34%. Both vendors have announced major
improvements to their device capabilities during the first quarter,
which is clearly translating into market opportunity for developers. "I
do mostly business applications, so the phones that are big in business
are big with me," claimed one developer interested in both platforms.
About Appcelerator
Appcelerator enables web developers, ad agencies, ISVs, and
enterprises to take advantage of the explosive growth in mobile,
desktop, and iPad applications. The company's flagship offering, Titanium,
is the only open source platform to enable cross-platform development,
from a single codebase, at web development speed for these three
platforms. Appcelerator's customers can leverage their exiting skills
and open, industry standard technologies to decrease time-to-market and
development costs, increasing customer adoption and revenues, and
enjoying greater flexibility and control. For more information, please
visit www.appcelerator.com.