With all you hear about the iPhone and its thousands of available apps, you’d think it’s the only mobile OS that developers are interested in. A new study reveals that while the iPhone is an important piece of the puzzle, developers are still remaining OS agnostic- meaning they’re developing their apps to run on multiple mobile operating systems instead of going platform-specific.
Sponsored by research firm Chubby Brain, the study looked at venture-backed 2009 mobile app start-ups and determined that 67 percent are developing their applications to work on multiple platforms- namely, the top six mobile operating systems: iPhone, Palm, RIM, Android, Symbian, and Windows. In addition, 33 percent are developing for a single platform- primarily the iPhone.
Of the 67 percent of developers that are developing for multiple platforms, more than 3/4 (76 percent) are developing their apps to run on all six primary operating systems. Additionally, 12 percent are developing for only two out of the top six- that being RIM and the iPhone.
It’s interesting research, though likely skewed due to the fact that the sample size included only venture-funded app start-ups. With VC funding, it’s likely the developers want to get their apps to as many consumers as possible, and being platform-specific would be limiting. If the research included all apps being developed right now, you would undoubtedly see a spike in iPhone-specific development.