Here's a headline that will probably make more than a few folks scratch their heads.
Despite the runaway growth of popular Apple devices powered by iOS (and previous polls and studies showing an overwhelmingly strong developer preference for iOS), a sizable portion of the mobile application developer community is now picking Android over iOS as the preferential platform to develop for.
Independent technology analyst Ovum's second annual developer survey shows that Android appears poised to bump iOS before the end of 2012 when it comes to the platform viewed by developers as being the most important to concentrate on.
Of course, I'll believe that when I see it. But, for now, that's what Ovum's numbers tell us.
Published Monday, the study does, however, show that almost all developers will continue to support both platforms. But Android's ascendance means that iOS will no longer see preferred status with many devs.
So why the big change? According to an underlying theory advocated by no shortage of industry analysts, iOS is no longer viewed as the only means to make serious cash. As more individuals and companies turn to Android devices and apps at a record pace, many developers now view Android as the operating system with real lucrative momentum.
The report concluded by acknowledging that developers are also beginning to give up mobile-centric development tools (Java, Flash, WAP, etc.s) in favor of HTML5, a Web-based standard that gives developers better reach across diverse devices and platforms.
Source: Ovum
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