Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS remains the primary focus of mobile application development efforts, but interest in Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone is gaining steam according to cross-platform app store GetJar's latest App Meter developer poll. Among the 300 GetJar network developers surveyed, 80 percent are presently working on projects for Apple's iPhone and 59 percent are building apps for the iPad, compared to 51.2 percent creating apps for Android smartphones and 20.5 percent developing for Android-powered tablets. But asked which platforms they plan to target six months from now, 58 percent of developers expect to work on Android smartphone apps and 47 percent anticipate working on Android tablet apps--just 55.6 percent expect to build iPhone apps, and 52 expect to create iPad apps.
Interest in Windows Phone is also increasing with version 7.1 (a.k.a. "Mango") on the horizon: Twenty-four percent of GetJar developers expect to develop for Windows Phone by year's end, compared to only 9 percent currently writing apps for the Microsoft platform. In addition, 70 percent of respondents believe Windows Phone will remain a viable mobile platform five years from now, behind iOS and Android at 98 percent each. Few developers are optimistic that Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry has legs: Fewer than 15 percent of respondents expect to initiate BlackBerry projects within the next six months, and under half believe the OS will still survive five years from now. Symbian's future is even more dire: Fewer than 7 percent of developers plan to write Symbian apps during the next six months, and fewer than 20 percent believe it will stick around over the long haul.
Nearly 80 percent of developers surveyed by GetJar distribute their apps via Apple's App Store, while 44.4 percent presently rely on Google's Android Market, although that number will increase to 70 percent in the months to come. Developer interest in marketing apps through Amazon's Appstore for Android increased from 11 percent to 34 percent, and interest in distributing apps via GetJar itself grew from 11 percent to 16 percent.
For more:
- read this GetJar Blog entry
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