Android is the fastest mobile platform for app development and the most popular tablet operating system, according to a new survey.
Evans Data’s “Mobile Development Survey 2013” took responses from 464 active mobile developers worldwide. It showed that 40.5% of Android developers finish apps in one month or less, compared to 36.2% of iOS developers and 34% of Windows Phone developers.
The majority of mobile app developers still take longer to create applications though, with 59.5% of Android developers, 63.8% of iOS developers and 66% of Windows Phone developers taking more than a month to finish apps.
Within the development process, the most time on each of the three platforms is spent testing and debugging applications, according to the survey. On less popular platforms such as Firefox and Tizen, the most time is spent coding.
In particular, Android developers said they spend more time on performance and UI optimization than did iOS and Windows Phone developers. In terms of specific mobile development approaches, Android developers spend the most time developing cross-platform apps. Seventy-four percent of all developers target not only multiple platforms but multiple screen sizes as well, emulating screen sizes before their apps ship.
(Android’s ready for even more expansion)
“Targeting multiple screen sizes is definitely the way to go,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “The benefit of having your app run across the gamut of device types is obvious, and while there are difficulties in synchronization across device types, and in the range of graphics capabilities that are supported by different screens, the benefits still outweigh the effort.”
The survey shows Android as the most popular platform for tablets as well as smartphones, where Android surpassed iOS in the spring of 2011 as the top development platform. Eighty-four percent of developers building tablet apps target Android, compared to 62% targeting iOS and 52% targeting Windows. BlackBerry and Kindle trail further behind, with 28.3% and 13.9% of tablet developers targeting those platforms respectively.
The full Mobile Development Survey 2013 can be found on the Evans Data website.
