August 03, 2011, 10:37 AM — If you're a developer, you want to be where the action is. And for mobile developers, that's Apple's iOS and Google's Android platform.
While Apple and Google already have had great success attracting developers, a new study by IDC and Appcelerator shows that Apple's iCloud service and Google+, the search giant's new social network, are sparking even more interest.
This is no real surprise, as developers have been flocking to Apple and Android platforms for awhile now.
But here's some new data since last quarter's IDC-Appcelerator survey that should get the attention of Mark Zuckerberg: Two-thirds of developers surveyed said they believe Google+ eventually will catch Facebook as a popular social network, while one-quarter of respondents predict Google+ will have the most significant effect on the growth and adoption of mobile technology.
Further, nearly half of the developers (49%) say Google+ "shows more innovation" than Facebook, according to the study.
Yikes. Facebook? That old thing?
Released in late June, Google+ reportedly already has 25 million users. That's just a fraction of Facebook's reported 750 million, but Google+'s growth rate exceeds Facebook's growth rate in the early days. (Though it should be noted that social networking was in its relative infancy back in the mid-naughts, when Facebook was gearing up to take on social networking behemoth MySpace.)
Here are the preferences expressed by developers in the survey:
* 91% want to develop for the iPhone iOS
* 88% for the iPad
* 87% for Android smartphones
* 74% for Android tablets
* 66% for HTML5 mobile web
Big dropoff coming...
* 30% for Windows phones ("Developers, developers, developers! Hey, where are all the developers?")
* 28% for BlackBerry phones
* 20% for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
* 18% for HP's webOS TouchPad tablet
* 12% for HP Palm Pre/Pixi phones
* 7% for Symbian
* 5% for Meego
Seriously, do the developers in those last two categories ever read the news? They might as well try to create apps for Marconi Wireless.
Follow Chris on Google+
