A new survey jointly conducted by Appcelerator® and International Data Corporation (IDC) released September 27, 2010 reveals Appcelerator Titanium developers favor Android over iOS in TVs and other devices. Although the market shows that Apple currently leads in iPhone/iPad sales and popularity, the survey reveals that of the approximately 2,300 developers polled, 72% believe Android is more suitable to power a larger number and variety of connected devices in the future and in the long-run, compared to 25% for iOS.
However, with respect to smart phones, iPhone still leads in developer preference over Android with 91% to 82%. And Google still has problems with fragmentation. When asked which is the least fragmented, 74% of developers chose iOS, while only 11% chose Android. Developers also stated that Oracle's lawsuit had little or no influence on their preference for Android. Nor did Apple's easing of iOS development restrictions further increase existing enthusiasm for iOS. But only 16% of developers expressed interest in Blackberry or webOS tablets. Rim, HP and other tablet makers will need to generate more developer excitement to make their future launches successful.
Scott Schwarzhoff, Vice President of Marketing at Appcelerator believes the market will soon catch up to developer preferences, as evidenced by the fact that preference for the Google Android has increased ten points from a survey the company did in June. According to Schwarzhoff, developers now have the same level of excitement for Android tablets as they did for iOS tablets at the beginning of the year. That's because they believe the Android platform is "ready to lift off." Schwarzhoff also cites the fact that Samsung chose the Google Android to power its TVs as further evidence of this trend.
Other results of the survey also highlighted the fact that developers are making significant use of third-party social networking, with Facebook a little a head of Twitter 65% to 60%, and that camera use is more popular than photo sharing services such as Flickr and TwitPic. Furthermore, there is strong interest among developers in using the camera for barcode scanning and augumented reality which means plans are in the works for more than photo sharing for mobile phones.
Monetary incentives did not influence the outcome of the survey. The results reflect the opinions and future development plans of these developers.
