Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform may not be a huge hit with consumers just yet, but according to a new report by market analysis and strategy firm VisionMobile, it’s definitely catching on with developers. Almost 60% of the developers who responded to this survey say that they plan to develop for the Windows Phone platform. Those are just ‘plans,’ though, and those don’t have to turn into reality. Windows phone, say the survey’s authors, “is indeed the new cool,” but “to turn the buzz into developer buy-in at the levels of iOS and Android, actual adoption must follow soon or fall flat.”
One area that’s especially attractive to developers, it seems, is the ease of coding and prototyping apps for Microsoft’s mobile platform, as well as the relatively low cost of development and low learning curve.
As for other platforms, about 28% of the developers surveyed in this study say they plan to develop for iOS, 25% say they’ll target Android and another 25% plan to develop for Chrome.
As tablets become increasingly popular, developers are also jumping on the bandwagon. Almost half of the mobile developers surveyed for its study now target tablets and almost 75% of iOS developers do so. That’s up from just 34.5% a year ago. Smartphones, of course, remain the most popular mobile devices targeted by developers, with 85% of them developing for one of the leading smartphone platforms.
When it comes to making money from their apps, though, mobile app developer clearly still remains a bit of a hit-driven business. The average revenue per app developers can expect to make is somewhere between $1,200 and $3,900 depending on the platform they are targeting. According to this study, BlackBerry developers currently make the most per app ($3,853), followed by iOS developers ($3,693) and those writing apps for Android ($2,735). While many developers may be expressing interest in developing for Windows Phone, the reality is that those who currently do so say they only make around $1,200 per app. These numbers only take into account the bottom 95% of developer by per-app-revenue, so there are obviously some developers who make significantly more.
It’s worth noting that only 4% of respondents said they developed for BlackBerry, though. This relatively small sample size likely influenced the average income per app (maybe only those who are still making good money from their BlackBerry apps actually still support the platform?).
Another caveat: the majority of developers who responded to this survey were from Europe (41%) and Asia (28%). Only 18% were from North America. It’s worth keeping this in mind as you look at the data, as the differences between these markets surely colors the developers’ experiences.