News

Windows Phone 7 Developer Interest On the Rise

• By Chris Paoli
• November 15, 2011

According to a survey conducted by IDC and Appcelerator, interest in developing for Windows Phone 7 has increased.

Out of 2,160 Appcelerator Titanium developers surveyed last month, 38 percent responded that they were "very interested" in the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. This finding represents an increase of 8 points compared with the response in the last survey conducted in June.

Windows Phone 7 showed some gains in the mobile OS competition, according to IDC analysis.  

"The third major mobile OS after iOS and Android is now clearly Windows, driven largely by the Microsoft/Nokia partnership and underscored by the new Nokia Lumia 800," said Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile & Connected Consumer Platforms at IDC, in a released statement.

The recent partnership between Nokia and Microsoft was the top reason given for the growing level of interest by respondents located in Europe and Asia. In North America, respondents cited the upcoming integration with Windows 8 as the No. 1 reason for the interest.

This difference in reasoning could be due to the fact that Nokia's Windows Phone 7 line will be premiering overseas first, with a U.S. release still unannounced.

This jump in developer interest for the Windows Phone 7 platform puts it in fourth, behind iOS (91 percent interest), Android OS (83 percent interest) and HTML 5 Mobile Web (66 percent interest). However, unlike the growing interest in Microsoft's mobile OS, the top four platforms saw little change in developer consideration.

Developer interest in Microsoft's Windows Phone platform helped to pull it ahead of the BlackBerry OS platform, which has been on a steep decline, per the survey. The survey showed that 21 percent of respondents were "very interested" in Research in Motion's mobile OS platform. This result was down from its all-time high in 2010 of 42 percent.

The other big piece of news from the joint survey showed that almost half of developer respondents (49 percent) were very interested in the Kindle Fire, Amazon's new media tablet that began shipping today. This result was only three points down from the iPad's interest level right before its launch (the iPad is currently in first place according to U.S. respondents). The survey found that developer interest in Amazon's tablet was a point higher than developer interest in Samsung's Galaxy Tab.

"Amazon has shown exceptional early success in appealing to developers with the Kindle Fire showing that price and differentiation are keys to competing in the crowded Android tablet space, rather than simply chasing the iPad market," said Ellison.

The full survey and results can be downloaded by registering here.