The folks over at VisionMobile have updated their Developer Economics survey with some interesting changes since last year in mobile application development trends and plans. Herewith are a few nuggets:
- 84% of mobile developers use iOS, Android, or HTML5 as their main platform; only 4.5% are targeting Windows Phone.
- Even though Android has 4x as many shipping devices than iOS, developers use iOS as their main development platform over Android by 59% to 49%.
- Although when you ask developers what they are GOING to target, over 40% say Windows Phone; in reality only 21.5% use it as their primary dev platform.
- It's not the programming language that's a barrier to adoption, it's the API.
- 1 in 5 devs are either currently targeting or plan to target TVs; 93% currently target smartphones and 70% now target tablets.
- If you're a little bewildered by the plethora of frameworks, platforms, and tools that have sprung up to help you do mobile development, you're not alone: over 200 different startups in the space have emerged since 2009.
- The smart money in the Yukon gold rush stayed in Seattle and sold eggs and shovels to the would-be miners headed north. In this gold rush the equivalent items are user analytics and cross-platform tools.
- 61% of HTML5 developers target the browser (either a web app or mobile website) while only 27% so far are developing hybrid (ie using PhoneGap or similar) apps. This makes sense when you consider that the vast majority of mobile developers are primarily focused on the consumer marketplace.