Chances are if you’re looking for the hottest third-party applications for tablet devices you’ll find them on the iPad or an Android-powered device, according to a recent survey. Appcelerator, makers of cross-platform app development software, and market research firm IDC (PC World and IDC are both owned by International Data Group) recently surveyed 2,235 mobile developers to get their views on the state of mobile computing.
On average, mobile developers plan to produce 6.5 applications each in 2011 — an increase of 183% compared with 2010. You can also expect to see more apps that reach for the clouds. The survey found 87 percent of developers plan to offer some kind of online integration with their apps — only 64 percent planned cloud services in 2010.
But the big question for mobile developers in 2011 is, “which platforms and devices do I want to build my apps for?” Unsurprisingly, 92 percent of survey respondents said their top pick for app development is the iPhone. Android was close behind, with 87 percent saying they were “very interested” in making apps for Google’s mobile platform. BlackBerry phones and Windows Phone 7 perked the interests of developers at 38 and 36 percent, respectively. So it’s pretty clear the newest and hottest apps are probably going to show up on iPhone and Android smartphones first, before tablets.
The Appcelerator/IDC survey also found the feature that developers were most hoping to see, and take advantage of, in the iPad 2 was a camera.
It’s going to be a big year for tablets in 2011, but for mobile developers there appear to be only two choices for apps: iPad and anything Android.
