The latest Strategy Analytics Developer Survey, conducted in September 2013, polled over 1,600 active mobile app developers.
And the findings are both telling and resoundingly positive for Microsoft.
Over 32 percent of developers indicated they would support Windows Phone next year, double the 16 percent which created apps for the Microsoft platform in 2013.
It should be noted, however, that HTML5 and Firefox also fared well.
David MacQueen, Executive Director, Apps and Media Research, said “Naturally Android and iOS were the top platforms, with 84 percent and 68 percent respectively of developers targeting those platforms. That’s primarily down to the huge installed base; we asked developers why they were supporting particular platforms and the top answer for both of these platforms was the user base. 74 percent of Android developers and 65 percent of iOS developers cited this as a reason for their continued support.
“Of the other platforms,” MacQueen continues, “HTML5 ranked third in terms of developer support with 33 percent developing for HTML5 this year, rising to 43 percent expecting to develop next year. However, one third of those developers use HTML5 as a tool to develop for other platforms. Therefore, it seems that Windows Phone looks set to become the third ecosystem, as predicted by Elop in the infamous ‘burning platform’ memo. In contrast, support for Symbian next year is slightly under 2 percent of our developer panel.”
Adam Thorwart, a Research Associate at Strategy Analytics, added thst Firefox “seems to be gathering quite a bit of developer support, and in fact showed the biggest rise, with more than triple the number of developers expecting to support that platform next year.”
