With Apple poised to release its iPad tablet device on April 3, developer interest remains strong, with 80 percent of developers telling open-source platform provider Appcelerator they plan to build iPad applications within the next year. Among more than 1,000 developers surveyed by Appcelerator, 53 percent said their overall interest in iPad as a development platform is "very strong," behind only iPhone and Android--by comparison, just 12 percent expressed similar interest in the rival Amazon Kindle ebook platform. Ebooks, entertainment and media applications, business apps, healthcare apps and education apps lead as likely candidates for forthcoming iPad software projects.
Appcelerator notes that interest in Android is also surging--in January, 68 percent of developers expressed interest in writing Android apps, compared to 86 percent proclaiming similar desire to build for iPhone, but Android interest has since jumped to 81 percent, with iPhone edging up to 87 percent. In addition, developer support for BlackBerry increased from 21 percent in January to 43 percent in March, while interest in Microsoft's Windows Phone leaped from 13 percent to 34 during the same timeframe--Appcelerator credits the renewed interest to recent improvements to both platforms.
Interest in rival operating systems is waning, however. In January, 17 percent of developers expressed support for Palm's webOS, but that number has now slipped to 14 percent, due in large part to Palm's recent financial woes. Sixteen percent of developers remain interested in Symbian, trailed by Meego at 12 percent.
For more on the Appcelerator survey:
- read this release
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