Android leads market in developer confidence
Programmers see Google platform as having most revenue potential, ahead of Apple
Published: 6 July, 2010
READ MORE: Metrics | Application Environment | Android
Another developer survey indicates the growing power of Android in mobile software and content. In a report on 'mobile developer economics' sponsored by Telefonica's developer community, VisionMobile found that Android was the most used platform in early 2010, adopted by about 60% of programmers.
According to VisionMobile's complex methodology (see www.visionmobile.com for details), it was followed by iPhone on 52%, just slightly ahead of Java Mobile Edition, which in turn was leading Symbian. Around the 40% mark came BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, with Flash on 23%, non-Android Linux and Brew MP around 15%, and Samsung's new bada plus Palm/HP webOS bringing up the rear.
The reasons for developers to select a platform have changed, not just the technical attributes of the OSs, says VisionMobile. In particular, this has become a game of "commercial pragmatism - in the past two years, mobile software and applications have moved from the sphere of cryptic engineering lingo to part of the essential marketing playbook for mobile industry vendors."
This has made developers more pragmatic and knowledgeable, and they choose their platforms based on commercial criteria such as potential revenues and market penetration. The latter is "hands down the most important reason for selecting a platform", with 75% of survey respondents putting this top of their criteria for using a system. The report states: "Developers care more about addressable market and monetization potential than any single technical aspect of a platform."
However, this does not mean simply targeting the platform with the largest installed base - it is about belief in the growth potential of the system. So another important trend of the past two years is what VisionMobile calls "mindshare migration" - a shift away from established platforms like Symbian, Java ME and Windows Mobile to the new OSs, creating a brain drain. Among Symbian developers, for instance almost 25% also sell their apps in App Store and Android Market.
This has created a 'disconnect' between the focus on addressable market, and mindshare. Although Symbian, for instance, runs on about 390m handsets worldwide, and claims over 6,000 apps, the iPhone has 30 times that number of apps, even though it lives on only 60m units. This disconnect shows through in VisionMobile's calculations - developers' perception of an OS distorts their perception of its strength - across all the OSs surveyed, respondents felt the best aspect of their platform was its market penetration, even if that was, in actuality, relatively small.
Despite this apparent blind loyalty to certain platforms, most developers work on more than one, averaging 2.8 each in the sample of 400 respondents. Among iPhone and Android supporters, 20% release apps in both stores.
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Posted by anotherguy on Tuesday 6th July, 2010
Makes me wonder, though, if 'size of market' actually equals 'developer confidence'. Certainly, developers are enjoying building apps for a larger crowd, but when it comes down to it, what is the developer community really like? Is it a pain to go through the process of getting an app on the market? Is there anyone available to help with building apps? Is it easy? Does the company respond to support requests in a decent manner?
To me, even though HPalm is 'bringing up the rear' I have complete confidence in their system that they will soon be leading the pack. But even if they don't make it to the top (or anywhere near it), I am completely confident that their App Dev Process is the best available, and the developer community even better.