Another Look Into the Battle For Mobile Developer’s Hearts, and Why Microsoft Windows Risks Marginalization

From Mashable.com:  A Detailed Look at Apple and Google’s Fight for Mobile Developer Attention

Appcelerator
and IDC just published a new survey of smartphone developers focusing
on long-term platform perceptions, as well as what features are most
important when developing a new app. The results, like those from a
similar study performed by Appcelerator in June, indicate that Google’s Android
platform continues to be where developers see the most long-term
potential, especially when powering multiple types of devices (read:
beyond smartphone/tablet). In fact, the gap between iOS and Android () over “best long-term outlook” has widened an additional 10 points since June. The latest survey results indicate that 58.6% of respondents see Android as having better long-term outlook as compared to 34.9% for iOS.

… The latest survey results indicate
that both the iPhone and iPad still lead Android and Android tablets in
terms of developer interest — at least today. That gap continues to
shrink and when looking at non-smartphone or tablet use-cases, the
capabilities and potential for Android really start to take shape.
Appcelerator and IDC asked developers a series of questions about how
they perceived Android and iOS in terms of capabilities, openness,
long-term outlook and ability to power a variety of connected devices
in the future.

You can see the results in the chart below:

While Android leads iOS in all four
questions, the two where Android has an overwhelming lead over the
competition are variety of devices and openness. These two areas both
speak to Android’s potential as an underlying framework (and one that
isn’t necessarily tied into Google () or the Android Market ()) as much as its capabilities.

… In theory, iOS could be used for these
same [development] purposes. The difference is that Android is
licensed under the Apache license (Google’s own applications and the
Android Market are under different licenses, which is why you don’t see
the Android Market on devices without a cellular data connection),
whereas Apple’s iOS is proprietary and not licensed to outside device
makers.

… In the long-term, the outlook on
Android may be in the lead, but according to the developers studied,
iOS still offers better revenue opportunity, a better app store and the
biggest market for business and consumer apps.

The Android Market is tied to Google
Checkout and paid apps are still not available in all countries. This
limits the revenue opportunities for developers. Additionally, the app
discovery system pales in comparison to iOS.

… On the macro level, Android continues
to entice developers with its possibilities and future use cases. iOS
still really leads when it comes to the overall app development
experience, and especially with any revenue plans.

Looking at the features that developers
want to be able to integrate into their apps, it’s important to note
how many are platform agnostic. This actually shows that there is
potential for another company — Microsoft, RIM, HP — to capture
developer interest depending upon how easy they make it to hook into
the types of services and types of features that developers want to
bring to their apps.

Hat tip to BoomBustBlogger Indy

These surveys pretty much fall in line with our findings and
research, as well as my personal experience. The bottom line is that
Android has significant promise, and is turning in a very strong
strategic ROI very early on in the game – particularly considering that
Google’s management states that the Android costs to Google are
“minimal”. These minimal costs are throwing off very material value,
significantly driving up both the R&D and production costs of the
competitors and literally shaking up the entire landscape, while
considerably dropping the costs of all who adopt Android. See our most
recent research excerpt that illustrate Androids current and ongoing
impact: An Analysis and Valuation of The Success Story Formally Known as Android. The subscriber (click here to subscribe)
research piece attached to this article goes into explicit detail in
illustrating how Google will monetize Android/Admob, as well as revenue,
profit, enterprise and per share valuations attributable to these
initiatives: An Analysis and Valuation of Google’s Android and AdMob.

As an aside, for those who didn’t know, I have been playing around
with the high end mobile devices from Apple (primarily the iPad, but the
phone and iPod Touch as well) and what I considered to be the most
capable of the Android phones, the HTC Evo. Despite the roughshod
approach to app distribution through the Android Market, I have been
absolutely enthused with the creativity and capability of some of the
apps that are available for Android. It holds significant promise for
the future. Examples are:

• Voice Actions for Android: pretty slick, and it actually works. Yeah, I was doubtful, but it surprised me.

• Talk To Me Cloud The Android Universal Translator:
  this is utterly amazing. It now translates up to 38 languages (the link
  included here seems to be dated) – both ways, both verbally and
  delivers written text. That’s right, just like in the original Star Trek
  series. Has to be seen to believed.

• App Inventor:
  will unleash a wave of creativity through Android, and probably create
  hundreds of thousands of Android mini-programmers through the education
  system
• Camera 360: Allows the 8 mp Evo camera to compete with nearly any point and shoot in a similar sensor class
• Google Voice: redefines what is capable with the cell phone and frees you from your carrier

Comments

[Panafrican Funk...]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-29/rim-considers-using-its-tablet-operating-system-in-blackberry-devices.html

Attractive to Developers

An additional boon to QNX is that it may allow applications built for Android, the world’s fastest-growing smartphone platform, to be more easily ported to RIM devices, says Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. QNX and Android share the programming standard, Posix.

“There’s certainly some merit to the ability for that level of portability,” Tyler Lessard, RIM’s vice president of global alliances and developer relations, said in an interview. “Are we lowering the bar for people to port existing products from other operating systems like Android, iOS, and others and Linux? Yes, absolutely. Is it great to be able to tap into that existing developer experience? Absolutely.”

[KevinB]

Wow - a graph with no labels on the vertical axis? Does he put as much effort into his research?

[Widowmaker]

Don't worry he spelled his own name wrong too...

Reggie, I recall sparring with you on a post less than a month ago in which you could have backed the truck up to AAPL.   Just sold some of mine this week for easy money --  pride should never come before profit.

[Panafrican Funk...]

"pride should never come before profit."

Interesting, this seems like kind of a prideful post.  As in, you got lucky with a short term ramp on nonsensical valuation.  Congrats?  How are you doing over the last 3 years?

[Millivanilli]

Microshit is a joke. I've got vista on my computer and it crashes more than a woman driver.  

[dlmaniac]

As a developer myself I can assure you to worry about nothing when it comes Windows mobile development winning the heart of developers. If there's one thing that MSFT never got wrong it's their support for developers. No one comes close to challenge MSFT on that. Not even iPhone or Android that both have had a good head start over Windows mobile.