Appcelerator gathers Insights from over 5,500 Mobile Developers in recent Survey

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Appcelerator gathers Insights from over 5,500 Mobile Developers in recent Survey

At the end of Q3 2012, Appcelerator and IDC released the results from one of the largest surveys of mobile developers to date. The Q3 2012 Mobile Developer Report, which was compiled using information gathered from over 5,500 developers, provides incredible insight into the current state of the mobile industry.

Key Points

• Mobile developers believe that a mobile-first startup could disrupt Facebook.

• Developers predict that by 2015, in addition to smartphones and tablets, they will be building mobile applications for televisions, connected cars, game consoles, Google Glass, and foldable screens.

• Mobile developers are disappointed with nearly every aspect of HTML5.

• Apple continues to reign as the platform of choice for developers.

• Android development declines for a fourth quarter, with fewer than 66% of developers very interested in developing for the tablet platform and 76% for the smartphone platform.

• RIM declines to all-time low, providing an opportunity for others.  The survey revealed that the number of mobile developers “very interested” in building apps for the Blackberry phone fell to an all-time low of 9% from almost 40% in Appcelerator’s January 2011 survey.

• Developers remain excited about Storage as a Service and Backend as a Service.

• Developers are excited about new Apple features, including Apple Maps (37%) and enhanced Siri (22%). Faster processors, LTE (Long Term Evolution) connectivity and a larger screen on the iPhone 5.

• Developers are optimistic around the potential for Microsoft’s Windows 8 desktop, tablet, smartphone platform and its promised ability to develop applications that can scale across these three form factors.

Our Thoughts

It’s surprising to see such a doubtful sentiment surrounding the viability of Facebook. If they’re right… who’s next? MyFace? FaceSpace? MyBook? We’ll see…

Another surprise is that despite having the largest market share, Android development continues to decline for a fourth quarter in a row. If the trend continues, the quality gap between iOS and Android is likely to increase.

The predictions for 2015 and excitement surrounding BaaS are indicators of how rapidly things in this space are changing.  Additionally, the Windows 8 PC, tablet and phone combination ushers in a whole new (and uncertain) era of Microsoft computing. Let’s hope it’s better than Vista’s legacy and we won’t have to wait for Windows 9 to get really started…

The rest is what one could expect, developers still prefer Apple (specifically on the grounds of better monetization opportunities), RIM is drowning and HTML5 is no longer the cool kid on the block.

About Appcelerator

The company behind the report, Appcelerator, is the creator of the popular Titanium Mobile Development Platform. Titanium is Javascript-based and allows developers to build apps for iOS, Android and the mobile web using a single code base. Over 350,000 developers around the world are using Titanium, and it’s super easy to get started.

We recently partnered with Appcelerator to bring Scandit’s barcode scanner and product data services to their developer community, so give our Titanium module a whirl and let us know what you think!

We’ll be keeping up with the latest and greatest mobile industry trends and surveys right here on the Scandit blog, so stay tuned!