Close to half of developers who create applications for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS platform also build apps for Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) rival Android platform, according to a poll conducted by investment bank and institutional securities firm Piper Jaffray last week during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Forty-seven percent of iOS developers surveyed at WWDC 2011 also write for Android--36 percent write for Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry, 13 percent write for Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone, 7 percent create webOS apps and 4 percent build for Symbian. In addition, 36 percent of iOS developers focus exclusively on the Apple platform.
Although a significant number of iOS developers moonlight on other operating systems, 100 percent of respondents cited iOS as the superior platform in terms of ease of development and monetization options. Fifty-one percent of respondents believe iOS is the platform with the greatest potential for future growth, followed by Android at 40 percent and Windows Phone at 9 percent. None of the respondents expressed confidence in BlackBerry, Symbian or webOS.
Piper Jaffray also reports that 93 percent of developers targeting Apple's iPhone also build apps optimized for its iPad tablet. Just 7 percent of iOS developers also build apps for the Mac desktop platform, compared to 50 percent a year ago. Developers cited Apple's "strict limitations" as their biggest single complaint against the App Store, trailed by the storefront's submission approval process at 11 percent.
For more:
- read this Apple Insider article
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