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"Appcelerator has just published the results from its most recent mobile developer survey and the results shed some insight into what platforms and device types are most compelling to developers in the short term and for the long haul.\nThe survey covers some of the same ground as the last Appcelerator survey from March but it's interesting to see how developer opinions have changed, both in the wake of the iPad's successful launch and hot new phones on the Android front.We followed up on the big takeaways from the survey (which you can download as a PDF) with Scott Schwarzhoff, Appcelerator's VP of Marketing.\nHigh Interest in the iPad and Other Tablets\nBack in March, Appcelerator's developer survey indicated that 53% of developers were interested in developing for the iPad. What a difference a few million sales can make! The most recent survey results show that that number has gone up dramatically, with 84% of responding developers now saying they are \"very interested\" in developing for the iPad.\n\n\n\n\nThe iPhone saw a small bump in interest too, with 90% of respondents reporting interest, up from 87% in March. Android held steady at 81%. However, this is where it gets interesting: When asked about their interest in developing for an Android tablet \u2014 a question not asked in the previous survey \u2014 the results were a whopping 62%.\nThe strong interest in the iPad and in tablets in general suggests a few things. First, its indicative of the power of the new form factor of touch-based tablet computers as ushered in by the iPad. Second, it shows the power of operating system platforms as a whole. Just as iOS runs on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, Android can be run on phones, tablets, set-top boxes and even traditional laptops and netbooks. Multiple devices mean multiple-use cases and that means that if you are a developer and already targeting a platform for one type of device, making the jump to another device based on the same platform makes a lot of sense.\nDevelopers Place Long-Term Bets on Google\nAppcelerator asked developers to rate the major phone platforms, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and \"Other\" in a number of categories, including, \"best app store,\" \"biggest market for consumer apps\" and \"most 'open' platform.\" Check out the results below. The top choice is in red while the runner-up is in yellow.\n\n\n\n\nWhile Apple largely dominates the results, take a look at the last category: \"This OS has the best long-term outlook.\" Android, not Apple, won this round with 54% of the vote. This becomes even more interesting when you look at developer interest in other platforms, like tablets.\nDevelopers clearly think Apple's iOS has the best near-term outlook, but when planning ahead for the future, Android's openness and ability to run on many device types makes it a real contender in a bigger picture sense.\nApp Platforms: Pros and Cons\nIt's easy to survey developers on what mobile platform they prefer to develop for, but when you get to the why, the results can often be really interesting. In the case of the two dominant smartphone players, Apple and Google, the biggest strength is also directly tied to the biggest weakness.\nCheck out the results:\n\n\n\n\nThe number one reason cited by developers who favor iOS is that Apple makes the most-wanted devices for consumers. One of the reasons that Apple has such a high-demand product is because it exerts lots of control over the platform and the end-to-end user experience. Not surprisingly, that control comes at a high price, and developer's cite Apple's controlling nature as the biggest reason not to develop for the platform.\nConversely, the adaptability and openness of Android is cited as its biggest strength by developers. The fact that so many potential devices can use Android opens up possibilities and usage scenarios that developers have yet to fully implement. Still, the downside of this adaptability is the inevitable fragmentation and testing problems that arise when so many different types of devices \u2014 or even form factors of the same device type \u2014 exist. \nHaving spoken with Android and would-be Android developers at length, I know that device testing is one of the areas that developers run into the most issues with Android. While an iOS developer can buy an iPad or an iPod touch or iPhone off the shelf and do lots of hands-on device testing before releasing their app, Android developers are often limited to whatever device they happen to have from a wireless carrier and the Android SDK emulator. That means that making sure that apps look and act a certain way on both the HTC EVO 4G and the Motorola Droid X is difficult unless the developer happens to own both devices. And that's before you even get into the quagmire of what version of Android to target.\nDevelopers' Most-Wanted iPhone 4 Features\nAppcelerator pinged developers to see what iPhone 4 feature was most exciting. Unsurprisingly, Multitasking was the big winner. Interestingly, FaceTime ranked relatively low in the survey.\n\n\n\n\nVideo calling has yet to take off. However, it will be interesting to see how developers react to FaceTime after users have iPhone 4 devices in their hands and show how much (or how little) they use the feature.\nYour Thoughts\nWhat do you think about the survey results? Are you a mobile app developer? How do you feel about the long-term and short-term potential of the various smartphone platforms?\n\nFor more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/06/23/mobile-developer-survey-iphone-4/>