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Research firm Forrester recently release a report on what mobile app developers are most interested in. Even though Android has captured most of the smart phone market, iOS is the preferred operating system for launching a new app. No wonder Android users get so upset when a cool app is only available for iPhone or iPad.
According to TechCrunch, the Forrester report surveyed more than 1,600 app developers in North America and Europe. In the first-quarter 2013 survey, 35 percent of respondents target iPhone as their first priority device. In comparison, Android-based phones, which outnumber iPhones significantly, are a first priority device to only 27 percent of developers. According to IDC’s latest figures, Android devices make up nearly 80 percent of the market share.
App developers tend to use iOS as a launching ground because apps are easier to monetize in the App Store. Additionally, creation of compatible apps takes less work for iOS than Android because the latter typically takes more resources to develop because of the fragmented ecosystem and huge diversity in device screen size.
Additionally, the iPad gets a significantly larger amount of attention from app developers than Android-based tablets. According to the report, 27 percent of respondents rank the iPad as their second priority device, while only about a fifth rank Android tablets with such importance. TechCrunch pointed out that Windows RT devices are being “largely ignored by developers” at this time.
If the rumors are true and Apple does launch a low-cost iPhone this fall, the number of purchased iOS devices will likely grow to a level that more comparatively suits the number of app developers who prefer iOS to Android. Maybe we will see less people complaining about games launching on the iPhone and iPad first.
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