∞ iOS holds top spot for developers

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There was a lot of talk today about how a new survey rated the Amazon Kindle Fire as the number one Android tablet among developers in North America. While that may be true, it is not the number one mobile OS that developers want to program for — that distinction goes Apple’s iOS.

The report, compiled by Appcelerator and IDC, asked 2,160 Appcelerator developers which platform they most wanted to develop apps for. Apple came out on top with 91 percent saying they were interested in the iPhone. Coming in second place was the iPad with 88 percent saying they wanted to develop for that device.

While Apple saw interest in its platform go up, Android saw a 4 percent decrease in interest among developers, to 83 percent. The release of iOS 5 is thought to be the reason that Android fell.

Now, about the Kindle Fire. It came in at 49 percent of developers showing interest in developing apps for it. Hardly close to the interest shown towards iOS.

The number one drawback of developing for the Kindle, according to developers — fragmentation of Android.


  • nt

    It’s also probably worth noting the type of developers Titanium draws.  Since a major attraction of Titanium is cross-platform development, you are likely to have a much higher percentage of developers who would favor “secondary” platforms.  If you were able to evaluate the larger developer base by including native developers, I would guess that you’d see an even higher predilection towards iOS and generic Android.

  • http://twitter.com/scottaw scott

    I don’t see fragmentation of Android as an issue for Kindle developers. There’s ONE device and ONE UI and ONE software version. It just happens to be based on Android.

    I don’t see how it applies here, frankly.

  • Guest

    Fragmentation is an issue, and the deplorable state of tools and documentation for the other platforms is an issue too. RIM, for example, is downright hostile in this regard.