Windows Phone 7 is capturing the attention of developers in a VERY big way. Interestingly enough, the iPhone is drifting away to nothing (less than Palm, and barely ahead of Symbian).
Posted on 11/05/2010 6:59:40 AM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier
The iPhone will be losing some of its popularity among developers, advertisers, and publishers next year as the app makers try to diversify their offerings to other platforms.
In 2011, developers will be concentrating their efforts on making apps for Windows Phone 7, Android and the iPad, according to a report released today by Millenial Media, Digiday, and Stifel Nicolaus.
The analysis--based on interviews with developers, publishers, and advertisers--shows that 29 percent plan to support Android in 2011, 20 percent will focus on the Windows Phone 7 and Apple's iPad, and 12 percent will target RIM's Blackberry platform. By contrast, only 8 percent will be concentrating their next year's efforts on the Apple iPhone. These figures are significantly different from this year, during which 30 percent of the developers were in the iPhone camp.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Windows Phone 7 is capturing the attention of developers in a VERY big way. Interestingly enough, the iPhone is drifting away to nothing (less than Palm, and barely ahead of Symbian).
Microsoft’s Phone 7 is making SERIOUS waves in the mobile market. Add in the general sold-out state of WinPhone 7 phones in the EU, Microsoft being on track to ship 6 million units this year (in basically 75 days), and it’s a platform that WILL have serious impact on the market!
Translation: They'll be porting their already popular iPhone apps to these new platforms.
I want Android to be successful to keep the heat on Apple, and the Windows Phone commercials are funny. Competition is good!
Maybe some of them will. Ours will be doing it because they're sick to death of dealing with Apple's approval process.
Here on Taiwan the prices for the iPhone have dropped dramatically in the last 2 weeks. Strangely though, they are much more readily available. A bit hard to find up until the last few weeks - now they are in every shop.
iPhone 4 I should specifically.
LLS
They’re plenty available here in Shanghai, too... Of course, the only people I’ve seen with real iPhones were either really wealthier Chinese who wanted to show off their wealth or ex-pats living over here.
Of the former group, every single one (about 18) that I’ve met uses the iPhone for a fancy camera/picture viewer. They carry a Nokia or Samsung (or, in the case of one guy, an actual Vertu) for all their SMS/phone needs. The iPhone is really just a status symbol here.
WinPhone 7 is starting to make inroads here already, leaking first with the HTC and Microsoft staff in Shanghai, and some shops are talking about having the phones in the next 2 weeks. We’ll see! This place still sells a LOT of WinMo 6.X because it’s so tuned and accessible for Mandarin/Cantonese use, so we’ll see how WinPhone 7 holds up.
Microsoft “gets it”. You make it easy/cheap for developers to use, you worry about marketing the platform, and the developers will target your platform and bring the consumer to you.
It’s how they built the Windows empire, it’s how they built the Xbox empire, it’s how they built the Office empire, it’s how they’re going to build the WinPhone 7 empire. Great, low-cost/free development tools, fabulous technical support/documentation, support modern/widely used languages, don’t put restrictions on what can be created other than from a purely technical standpoint, and you win.
Not to mention using a version of an already well known development platform in the .NET framework.
Bump for when not behind firewall.
Sure, because it's the new shiny bauble in the developer's field of vision. Just like the iPhone was two years ago.
Any developer who doesn't follow the bouncing ball of the latest introductions is going to get left behind doing (ugh) support.
> Interestingly enough, the iPhone is drifting away to nothing (less than Palm, and barely ahead of Symbian).
Sure, because developers are always attracted to the next big thing, not a platform that's already largely mature (unless there's no next big thing to migrate to).
I don't find this surprising -- hell, most of the necessary apps for the iPhone have been written multiple times already. What was it, 400+ fart apps?
This is exactly what a reasonable person would expect to happen after the technology leader is joined by other competition. In the case of the iPhone, its competition according to your chart includes the iPad, and if you combine iPhone and iPad it equals Android and beats all the others.
Once again, pie-charts and marketshare figures are misleading, because a declining slice or percentage does NOT connote declining sales or interest, if the reason for it is a lot of new entries into that market.
If experience predicts the future, Apple will kill the iPhone (as such) before it becomes obsolete. They are two cycles ahead of everyone else, as usual, and working on the products which follow up on the iPad and Macbook Air. They have little interest in the iPhone any more.
My guess is Apple will downplay the smartphone market within 2 years, now that it's becoming crowded with cheaper versions. They'll continue making iPhones as long as its profitable, but their development interest has long since shifted elsewhere.
This is why I welcome Microsofts WinPho7 to the smartphone market. If the product is any good at all, they'll be able to do well.
I wish Microsoft all good luck in this market. They seem to have a solid product and Apple's iPhone is already starting to exit in favor of their next big things.
So Microsoft's timing couldn't be better.
Or, as tacticalogic above posts, developers are tired of dealing with Apple and their store, and are ready to jump to the next decent OS that comes along.
If you’re specialty in the PC world was IM, then SMS is a logical “equivalent” for you. Of course, that’s a no-no in the Apple world.
If your specialty was sound playback, well, Apple doesn’t like you replacing their iTunes player, so sorry - you’re out of luck.
And on and on. Developers love freedom - freedom to do what they WANT to do. Apple doesn’t provide that as well as Microsoft historically does. It makes sense to me, I can understand why tacticalogic’s devs are eager to leave iOS and move to another platform.
Agreed. I've always been a champion of freedom in computers, hardware and software. You know my history -- I was one of those "hobbyists" in the 70's that Billy Gates wrote his famous screed about. How dare we hobbyists modify copies of his software for our own use?? How dare we share our changes and innovations among ourselves?? How dare we act as if information should be free???
Oh, trust me, I have been a champion of freedom in software development for a LONG time. I was there when the concept got started, and I haven't changed my opinion much, and I still prefer open source software, although I'm entirely willing to pay for good commercial software.
In the late 80's and early 90's I developed for the Mac, and Apple's "Our way or the highway" approach turned me off. These days my development work on Macs is at the BSD Unix level -- stuff that's portable to other operating systems.
Remember Jobs' famous quote when asked about porting software to and from other platforms, "Port is a wine. You drink it." Apple's business model is not about portability. It's about the high-end of the market, designing great systems from top to bottom, and making money. They are successful at all those things, and I have no objection to them doing so. But I wouldn't develop for their platforms, as things stand. I have the wrong attitude.
So trust me, I understand tacticalogic's developers' attitude COMPLETELY.
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