Survey Shows Devs Have High Interest in Apple’s Tablet

Appcelerator has disclosed findings gathered from a poll of application developers about their plans to build software for the impending Apple tablet computer. Some 554 developers offered their point of view on the matter and revealed their plans, interests and preferences surrounding the device, Appcelerator says.

Appcelerator enables web developers and enterprises to create and take advantage of the explosive growth in software applications, using specialized tools and methodology. Calling it “The Tablet App Wave: How Apple Tablet Developers Will Radically Transform Computing,” Appcelerator reveals that its report is available for viewing, reprint, and redistribution at the company’s website, here.

As it usually goes, key findings are listed in the press release announcing the report in question, although one in particular has been highlighted by Appcelerator: “Developers are already gearing up to build novel applications en masse for this new device,” the company claims. Sure enough, some may already be familiar with Apple's own development tools. Other findings from Appcelerator's survey include:

· 90% of respondents say they plan to build a Tablet application over the coming year.
· Apple Tablet has vaulted into 3rd place right behind iPhone and Android as a preferred development platform…well ahead of Blackberry, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.
· Developers see bigger opportunities than gaming apps and are gearing up to develop new apps in the areas of entertainment, productivity/business, social networking, and education.
· Developers plan to make the most of the Tablet’s rumored features to build apps in the above categories. They plan to incorporate the following anticipated features: multi-touch gestures, the tablet’s unique user interface, multi-tasking (running multiple applications at once), and networking (e.g.: wireless/wi-fi).
· Developers anticipate being able to offer discounts or special promotions for applications developed for both the iPhone and Apple Tablet platforms.

“We believe these findings are particularly relevant and insightful because Appcelerator developers uniquely represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds,” co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator, Jeff Haynie, noted. “There are iPhone and Android developers on the mobile side and PC, Mac, and Linux developers on the desktop side. We have a global audience that splits 40 percent in the U.S. and 60 percent outside the U.S. as well as near-equal representation of business and individual developers.”

As strange as it may sound, the company took the opportunity to also announce that its flagship cross-platform product, Titanium, would support the new Apple Tablet. According to Appcelerator, “Titanium enables web developers to use industry-standard, open-source Web technologies [...] to quickly build rich, fully native applications that run on the iPhone, Android, Apple Tablet, PC, Macintosh, Linux platforms from a single code base” (highlight ours). Does Appcelerator know something we don’t?