ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Marketing Dive acquired Mobile Marketer in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out the new Marketing Dive site for the latest marketing news.

Is the iPad surpassing Android handsets as a priority for developers?

Developers are said to be losing some of their interest in creating mobile applications for Google?s Android operating system, threatening to make it No. 3 in terms of priority behind the iPhone and iPad, according to a new report from International Data Corp. and Appcelerator.

By device, 89 percent of developers say they are interested in developing for the iPhone, 88 percent for the iPad and 78.6 percent for Android handsets. The 4.7 percent point drop for Android from the previous quarter is consistent with the small but steady erosion in Android interest over the last four quarters, according to IDC and Appcelerator.

?It looks to us like the Apple iPad is about to surpass the Android handset markets in terms of developer priorities,? said Scott Ellison, vice president of mobile and connected consumer platforms at IDC, Framingham, MA.

?Traditionally, iPhones were the No. 1 priority, Android handsets were No. 2 and No. 3 was the iPad,? he said.

?Developers are not abandoning Android, but they are finding a more lucrative market in the iPad."

App development accelerates
Overall, the Appcelerator/IDC Mobile Developer Report Q1 2012 report points to continuing growth in app development, with 53.5 percent of respondents saying they are focused on accelerating their mobile strategies compared to 27.4 percent in 2010.

Despite the overall growth, some operating systems and devices are faring better than others.

The report reveals that interest in developing for Android tablets dropped 2.2 percent points from the previous quarter to 65.9 percent.

Windows Phone 7 remains the No. 3 operating system in terms of developers? priorities.

BlackBerry continues to see declining interest from developers, which dropped from 20.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 15.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

Location and notifications are the top two services that developers plan to integrate into their applications in 2012.

Google's strength in social
The report also shows that there is significant interest from developers in Google?s social mobile capabilities.

While developers see significant opportunities at the intersection of social and mobile, many are struggling to understand how to leverage social assets in their mobile apps.

However, developers recognize immediate value in being able to easily integrate Google?s various assets, with 39 percent of developers saying that Google?s broad range of assets are more important to their social strategies in 2012 than Facebook?s social graph.

Leveraging Facebook?s full social graph itself ranked low in terms of social priorities and tied for 8th place.

?Google is much more strongly positioned against Facebook in terms of mobile social than you would have expected,? Mr. Ellison said. ?Developers tells us that Google?s assets are easier to integrate than Facebook?s social graph and that they don?t fully understand Facebook?s social graph.

?Google recognizes the opportunity this provides, which is why it is changing its privacy policies,? he said.

?There is a marriage of what Google is doing in the marketplace and what developers want to do from a mobile social perspective.?

Shift to HMTL5
The report also suggests that HTML5 is becoming a significant focus of developers more quickly than had been anticipated, with 79 percent of mobile developers saying they will integrate HTML5 in their apps this year.

This includes developing mobile browser apps and hybrid apps which integrate native code for individual mobile operating systems with HTML5.

The reason for the strong interest in HTML5 is that it provides a stronger set of specifications and can meet many needs of developers. However, the technology has not evolved to the point where developers can write the code for a new app once and run it across platforms. 

The findings are based on a survey of 2,173 Appcelerator developers around the world.

?The big news is the focus on HTML5 going forward and what that means in terms of hybrid apps,? Mr. Ellison said. 

?It is a major shift in terms of HTML5 playing a much bigger role in 2012 than a lot of people expected just a couple of quarters ago,? he said.