Developer momentum is drifting towards Apple as fragmentation and tepid interest in current Android tablets chip away at Google’s recent momentum gains, according to new report by IDC.
The report revealed the rise of the ‘mobile cloud’, a trend toward connected mobility that promises to partially address the issue of fragmentation and transform the relationship between business and customer.
The Appcelerator-IDC Q2 2011 Mobile Developer Report highlighted that interest in Android has plateaued as concerns around fragmentation and disappointing results from early tablet sales have caused developers to pull back from their previous steadily increasing enthusiasm for Google’s mobile OS.
In the survey of more than 2,700 Appcelerator developers around the world, nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that it is not possible for Microsoft, RIM, HP, and Nokia to reverse momentum relative to Apple and Google.
Underscoring the fluidity of the mobile ecosystem, and recent simultaneous drops in developer interest in Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry OSes moved Windows Phone 7 ahead of BlackBerry to claim the third spot in developer interest.
The report stated that Apple iOS interest remains high with 91% of developers saying they are ‘very interested’ in iPhone development and 86% are very interested in developing for the iPad.
Google witnessed a plateau in its earlier momentum gains with reported interest in Android phones fell two points to 85% and Android tablets fell three points to 71% after increasing twelve points in Q1.
In terms of fragmentation, Android’s issues are not the number one fragmentation concern among developers. Fragmentation in mobile is six layers deep, with Android fragmentation ranking third behind the fragmentation of skills, and the fragmentation of OS capabilities.
The report stated that 71% of developers are interested in Android as a tablet OS, 52% are interested in one of the leading Android tablet devices today, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, 44% are interested in the Motorola Xoom, and 31% in the upcoming HTC Flyer.
Microsoft and RIM registered drop in developers interest rate to 29% and 27% respectively, compared to last quarter . However, the recent Microsoft’s partnership announcement with Nokia, Windows Phone 7 interest fell four points less than BlackBerry to make Microsoft the new number three in developer interest behind Apple and Google.
Further, the report revealed that as mobile device shipments surpassed desktop shipments, the demand for software, information, and data portability became ever greater.
84% of respondents said that they are using at least one cloud-enabled or cloud-based service in their applications today.
78% are using social cloud services such as Facebook or Twitter; 70% are using commerce; 70% are connecting to their own behind-the-firewall enterprise services such as Oracle, SAP or another backend database; and 65% are streaming media such as YouTube or flickr.
Multiple clouds define the mobile cloud, as developers and businesses, on average, plan to use 13 of the 44 services with mobile cloud components polled in their applications now and over the coming 12-18 months.
The research firm said that the mobile cloud-enabled services are increasingly being accessed through both mobile applications and mobile websites with over 80% of mobile app developers said they either are building or plan to build mobile websites this year.
Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie said that with over 20,000 native mobile applications in the Appcelerator Titanium portfolio today, they have seen an overriding theme emerge: mobile and cloud-connectivity are together defining the context and engagement of the key mobile app scenarios in use today.
"It is important for any business looking at mobile to have a strategy around a well-orchestrated integration between the cloud and mobile applications," Haynie said.
