Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Devs Bet Big On Android Over Apple's iOS

Posted by Soulskill on from the striding-toward-peak-apps dept.

CWmike writes "A majority of mobile app developers see Android as the smart bet over the long run even as they vote for Apple's iOS in the short term, according to a survey conducted jointly by Appcelerator and IDC. The survey polled more than 2,300 developers who use Appcelerator's Titanium cross-platform compiler to produce iOS and Android native apps. Of the 2,300 polled, 59% said that Android had the 'best long-term outlook,' compared with just 35% who pegged Apple's iOS with that label. But three out of four said that iOS offers the best 'near-term' outlook, with 76% tagging Apple's operating system as the best revenue opportunity."

8 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Re:woowoo by hedwards · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given the way that Apple treats 3rd party devs and the locked down phone, it would be very surprising if Apple keeps their loyalty without making a major course correction. Those dick moves like randomly rejecting applications and stealing functionality out of apps for the base system isn't really endearing them with the people they need to keep the appstore vibrant.

  2. Not a surprise by TheCount22 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not really a surprise considering it is the only mainstream open platform not tied to any particular hardware.

    1. Re:Not a surprise by Korin43 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's even less surprising when you read who they asked: "2,300 developers who use Appcelerator's Titanium cross-platform compiler to produce iOS and Android native apps".

      Why doesn't the headline read "People who use cross compilers have a reason for that choice". Despite what the title suggests, my guess is that Appcelerator users aren't the majority of mobile developers.

  3. Sampling bias? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So among cross platform developers, just over half said one platform was better than another.

    Talk about sampling bias. This just in, 70% of AppleInsider users think iOS is great, and 99% of lactose intolerant people think Ice Cream suck

    big deal.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  4. Asking The Undecided? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps I'm missing something, but isn't this effectively a survey of people who are undecided? After all, isn't that why they're using a cross-platform kit rather than writing right to Android/iOS?

    I would think looking at the developers who have firmly committed themselves to a platform as a better metric. The uncommitted developers have nothing to lose.

  5. Re:PC Clone Wars Redux by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple obviously never thought of that.

  6. Re:woowoo by dagus2020 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    USERS paid developers over $1 billion, and Apple snatched over $300,000. Saying Apple has paid $1 billion to developers is like saying VISA has paid companies $1 zillion dollars. Nice try, Steve Jobs!

  7. Objective-C never was a developer lock in by perpenso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Objective-c is Apples attempt to co-opt developers

    Objective-C never was a developer lock in, it is merely used by the API for the operating system. You have always been free to use C/C++ for your application's code. Whether the OS API is objective-c or C/C++ doesn't really matter, such calls are rarely portable to begin with as they are generally platform or hardware specific.