Developer interest in Android, W7 development growing at the expense of iOS according to new GetJar Poll

As Android grows, developer interest in alternative distribution also rockets!

We just concluded our latest App Meter developer poll here at GetJar and have some interesting stats to share with you.

To be upfront and clear, we surveyed 300 developers across our network in collaboration with several of our ecosystem partners including Inmobi, Urban Airship, Device Anywhere and SV Android Meet-up.  A big thanks to our partners for helping us with the outreach!

So what did we find?  Well first we found that although iOS development remains strong (80% currently developing for iPhone and 59% developing for iPad) that the Android army is catching on fast.  When we asked what developers were planning on developing for in the next six months vs. what they’re doing today here’s what we saw:

• IOS:  Today 80% -> Six months from now 55.6%
• Android: 51.2% Today -> 58% six months from now
• IOS iPad: 59% Today -> 52% six months from now
• Android Tablet: 20.5% Today -> 47% six months from now

So it seems that developers are really looking at Android tablets as the next possible area of opportunity.  Here’s some more detail on future development interest:

Another note of interest as well was the growing interest in Windows Phone.  Mango seems to be tickling developers pink with 24% of developers saying they’ll develop for OS compared to less then 9% today.  That’s still less then ½ of the interest in Android but given Windows’ small base it looks like there is some optimism for the Nokia / Windows alliance.  This was further strengthened by by over 70% of developers saying they think Windows Mobile will still be a viable platform in 5 years (Android / iOS scored over 98% here).

App distribution remains fairly concentrated today among a few app stores with Apple’s app store being the preferred method of reaching consumers with nearly 80% of developers surveyed using the App Store.  Less then 50% of developers claimed to be using Android Market (44.4%).  However, Android distribution looks set to rise with nearly 70% of developers saying they’ll distribute through Android Market in the next six months.  While Market seems to be the main beneficiary, interest in independent channels also seems to be on the rise in the Android ecosystem.  Interest in distributing on GetJar grew from 11% to 16% while interest in Amazon’s App Store increased 11% to 34%.

The Bad News

While things look rosy for Android and Windows with Apple looking to continue to dominate the landscape despite some drops, things didn’t look as rosy for some of the other ecosystems.

Symbians decline – as confirmed by Nokia’s plans to stop selling Symbian-based devices in the US this week – seems terminal with less then 7% of developers looking to develop on the platform in the next 6 months.  Equally, less then 20% of developers believe the platform will be around the next couple of years.

Blackberry still faces some challenges with less then 15% of developers interested in developing for the platform the next six months.  Less then 50% of developers believe Rims platform will survive the next 5 years.

Look for us to share more detailed charts/ results next week and in the meantime have a great weekend!

Patrick “Mad” Mork

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