Apple vs. Google, who is developer’s favorite?

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.:  While the Apple vs. Google battle has been well documented, developers see the real battle between these two titans as near-term momentum vs. long-term dominance. 

A recent survey taken by Appcelerator, platform provider for rapidly developing native mobile, desktop, and iPad applications using web technologies, said that The surge in popularity for developing tablet applications on both OSes suggests the battle is moving from phones to "anywhere computing.”  And with tier 2 platforms seeing flat to declining interest from developers, it’s clear that Apple and Google are now playing chess while everyone else plays catch up.

Apple Dominating with iPad, iPhone, but Developers Favor Google’s Open OS Long-Term, noted the survey,

The leadership that Apple and Google have now in mobile is clearly translating into a long-term tussle for computing beyond the phone.  Strong interest in the iPad increased 31 points to 84 per cent while strong interest in developing applications for Android Tablets, appearing for the first time in this survey, came in fourth behind Android phones and ahead of all other Smartphone OS vendors beyond Apple and Google.

When stack ranked, developers overwhelmingly favor Apple against other platforms for its App Store, market for consumer and business apps, devices, and near-term outlook. 

However, Android comes out tops against others for its OS capabilities, platform openness, and long-term outlook. When asked in more detail, 69 per cent of respondents felt that Android’s potential to "show tremendous adaptability, from tablets to e-readers to set-top boxes” is its greatest strength as a platform.  The potential for tablets and other devices from HP based on webOS is also Palm’s greatest perceived strength.

"Developers are rearranging their priorities to unlock the new potential that tablet computing holds,” noted Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator. 

According to him developers are experimenting with tablets as point of sale terminals, tablets as TV or other hardware control devices, and tablets as university training tools. There is lots of interest seen within categories that have yet to be revolutionized by web-connected devices and in categories where embedded proprietary software used to rule.

When developers were presented with eight lifecycle stages for development, "porting apps to multiple platforms” stood out as the number one developer pain point.  Moreover, the fragmentation "nightmare” was the biggest stated issue for developing for the Android platform (61per cent), even above the threat that iOS poses Google’s operating system.

Contrary to popular belief, large organizations are even more interested than individual developers in mobile. 60 per cent of developers in organizations with more than 1,000 employees said they were "very interested” in BlackBerry compared to 33 per cent overall. 

For Android, 90 per cent of developers in these companies said they were "very interested” in Google’s OS compared to 81 per cent overall.

 Interest in Apple’s iOS has increased to 94 per cent from 90 per cent overall for large organizations.

On the other hand, Palm webOS and Meego show more interest in smaller companies than larger ones. 

Cross-platform concerns were also much higher in large organizations.  Developers in large organizations were 65 per cent more likely than individual developers to cite this as their top development issue. 

BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, Palm, and Meego all saw slightly lower enthusiasm.