Survey: Developer interest in iOS highest and growing
Nielsen may be reporting that Android is growing in desire among consumers, but for developers, iOS is still the platform of choice. A survey by Appcelerator with help from IDC says that developers still favor iOS for making their mobile apps. A full 91 percent of devs surveyed said that they were "very interested" in making apps for iPhone, and 86 percent of those surveyed would like to make apps for iPad. In fact, the iPad has just recently risen up over the Android platform, which sits after a short fall at just 85 percent of developers saying they're "very interested" to code apps for it.
Obviously, these numbers can't be used to proclaim that any one of these platforms are more or less healthy than the others -- mobile in general is big right now because it's such a growing market (and can be very lucrative for talented developers). But Android is still working out some kinks in terms of supporting development, while Apple has more of a tried-and-true solution. Developers in the survey said that Android fragmentation among devices as well as multiple app stores are keeping them away from projects on that platform.
Microsoft and RIM, on the other hand, are still waiting on customer adoption -- the new BlackBerry PlayBook is at 20 percent interest among developers, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform is only a little higher than that. At this point in time, Apple has everything developers want: a developer toolkit that's powerful and relatively easy to use, lots of customers ready to spend money on apps, and a big install base with a solid future. It's no wonder devs like iOS so much.
