Apple and Google’s operating system are seen by mobile developers to command the lead for cloud computing technology, social networking and the mobile enterprise IT. This does not mean though that Microsoft is totally out of the picture.
A recent survey conducted by a cross-platform development toolmaker Appcelerator and research firm IDC revealed that developers are split up with the providers they think will lead the market share. This survey was conducted among 2,000 developers, 44% chose Apple iOS, while the other 44% chose Google as the leading enterprise. The other enterprise that are hoping to get a portion of the market share includes Window’s Phone 7 that got 7% of the result, 4% was for BlackBerry and the rest of the 2% was for webOS.
The survey also looked into the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise in terms of user experience, comparing QNX, RIM, Apple iOS and Android/Honeycomb operating systems. The enterprise developers named Android and iOS as the leading product; 30% said Android was leading because of their market leadership, 24% chose it for their consumerization of IT.
Developers are generally influenced by user market significance in the development of their platforms; they see Google+ and iCloud as the two top enterprises to call the trend in growth of sales.
Developers however, who are planning to launch their cloud platform will likely choose Amazon with 51% share, iCloud with 50%, Microsoft Windows Azure and VMWare both at 20%, and RedHat OpenShift at 17% share.
Scott Schwarzhoff, Appcelerator’s VP for marketing wrote in an email correspondence “Platform players in this new space will need an integrated strategy to create maximum value. This integration creates ease-of-deployment from a business standpoint, which in turn creates the opportunity for greater adoption. This ease of integration explains the enthusiasm we see from developers for Apple iCloud. To compete, Microsoft needs to make Windows Azure similarly easy to deploy to non-Microsoft devices for marketshare reasons while at the same time offer Azure as a way to pull through demand–particularly in the enterprise–for Windows Phone 7 devices.”
Developers have a particular vision for the future of enterprise with Appcelerator’s tools, where they can input codes, and access it everywhere. This, however, is still in the conceptualization stage.
Both Appcelerrator and IDC believe that there may be a gap between CIO requirements and developer opinions when talking about Android. These gaps may present an open opportunity for other cloud developers hoping to get a chunk of the market share. One of which is the DesktopDirect for Android developed by Witness Array Network. This was a common scenario with Microsoft’s flaws that gave way for third party product offerings. With Android’s imperfections, Google has seen an opportunity to take advantage and develop products that will help their ecosystem to thrive.
Apple is seen to follow the lead of Microsoft with its development of their iOS, especially if Android would come up with very pricy service offerings. Others do not see the market with only two giants on the lead, Al Hilwa, the IDC program director for applications development software said that the battle has just begun and it is very early to predict whether Microsoft will get its projected leverage that will affect the overall PC market.
In an email Hilwa said “The expectation is that enterprises will be going through a protracted cycle of reworking their apps to support mobility but many are waiting for Microsoft to play its hand with the PC since that is the de facto device that the overwhelming majority of enterprises buy for their employees. The fact that Windows 8 will run on ARM and be more mobile will make mobility mainstream. I expect the synergies created between Windows 8 and Windows Phone to be very important in pushing WP7 into enterprise mobility.”
Hilwa noted that Microsoft has yet to find solutions to its flaws in Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Apple and Google may be on the lead, but the race is not over so it’s early to predict who will be on the head start.