Has Developer Interest in Android Leveled Off?
Has the golden era of Android ended? It has for developers, at least one survey is reporting. Interest in developing for Android phones and tablets has dropped, according to the latest survey conducted by Appcelerator and IDC. It had been seeing a steady increase up until this point. Interest in Android phone development was down two points, settling at 85 percent. Tablets saw an larger drop of three points for a 71 percent interest level. In the meantime, interest in Apple’s iOS remains strong.
So why are developers starting to feel cold towards Android? The two major factors in the shift are renewed concerns about platform fragmentation and what is being perceived as a rather lackluster initial run of Honeycomb tablets. The emergence of new third-party app stores also concerns some developers.
The good news is that Android and iOS still maintain the strongest hold on developers, and third-place options such as Windows Phone 7 still aren’t garnering too much attention. We still have to wonder if this is simply a minor hiccup or a trend that will continue into the next quarter. Provided Google woos us at their I/O developer conference, momentum could once again shift towards the positive for Android app development.
[via GigaOM]