VISIONMOBILE:2013 Mobile Developer Economic Report (V): Chapter I mobile duopoly (middle)

Multi-platform developers earn better

Developers interested in revenue have 78% simultaneous use of 2 or more platforms

78% of developers interested in application revenue are using 2 or more platforms at the same time . At the same time, the developer's platform selection is narrowing. Our latest survey shows that mobile developers use 2.6 platforms on average, compared with 2012 for 2.7 and 2011 for 3.2. As Android and iOS duopoly the sale of smartphones, developers are increasingly gathering on these two platforms: 80% of respondents developed on Android,ios, or both, making Android and iOS the basic choice for a platform portfolio . On average, developers who do not use these two platforms earn half of the users, and there is no doubt that developers are clustered into two major ecosystems .

In 2013, developers surveyed more than 3,400 developers and found that 49% of developers used 1-2 mobile platforms, and 75% of developers used 1-3 mobile platforms . The number of developer platforms is somewhat related to their dominant platform. In mobile development, loyalty to a platform is not rewarded. Research shows that the more you use a platform, the higher your income. For example, an iOS developer porting an app on Andriod is likely to lead to some growth in revenue. At the same time, when developers develop higher incomes on four or more platforms, this could be the result of extending successful applications to more platforms. Obviously, not all developers can do that. This is more appropriate for large publishers, or to entrust large enough development teams to support multiple platforms.

the battle between iOS and Android

ISO is the most revenue-generating platform, but Android offers a better learning curve and lower costs

As iOS and Android become benchmarks for mobile app development, the question is clearly: which application discovery, learning curve, cost, and revenue potential is best. IOS is an advantage in platform contrast, with 4 of the 7 largest platforms in the app Discovery (50% iOS vs 23% Android) and revenue potential (66% iOS vs 12% Android). Developers have developed the idea that iOS offers better monetization opportunities, which are confirmed in the survey data. iOS is a small leader in developer environments and documentation. Android has a significant advantage in cost (32% Android vs 14% IOS) and a small lead in the learning curve.

For most developers, the platform's view ultimately boils down to which platform to prioritize, or which platform to prioritize on, and in this regard,iOS 42% is clearly leading Android 31%. Determining who is the "leading platform" is also affected by other factors, such as previous development experience, regional platform portfolio, but, to be fair, the developer view of iOS wins.

Most mobile developers take iOS as a priority

48% of iOS developers prefer Apple, followed by Android and BlackBerry developers

We surveyed more than 3,400 developers on which platform was their main platform to compare platform preferences. iOS is the top priority platform, with 48% of iOS developers as their first choice. 44% of Android developers have Android as their first choice. BlackBerry developers also prefer BlackBerry, which is preferred by 38% of BlackBerry developers. IOS, Android and BlackBerry become the leading platform group .

Beyond the leading platform, Windows phone and HTML are considered the main platforms, with 1/4 developers. We call this an expansion platform because developers are often used to extend the application to a consumer group or region that is not fully covered by the leading platform.

At the end of the developer's liking is Symbian,qt,flash and Javame, which we call " the filler of the void ." This is mainly the old generation platform, now used to solve the remaining market gaps, has not been a leading platform to exist. Symbian, for example, still has a huge amount of equipment installed, almost twice times the size of the BlackBerry, but with the Symbian phone production deadline, few developers will put too much effort on it.

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