14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone 8, the next flavor of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, might attract a lot of developers on its side, a recent survey shows.
While interest in Windows Phone 7 was rather low, the upcoming platform release could spell great news for the application ecosystem that users benefit from.
A survey conducted by R.W. Baird among 200 developers of mobile applications shows that only 20 percent of them have built applications for Microsoft’s operating system.
In contrast, around three quarters of them already launched Android or iPhone applications, the report shows.
However, things could change significantly in Windows Phone’s favor as the next-gen platform release arrives on the market.
Over two-thirds of these developers said that they found the Windows Phone 8 platform interesting, the same as Microsoft’s new approach on applications for it.
Two-thirds of respondents said that the shared code between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 is one of the most interesting features of the upcoming mobile OS.
As Microsoft said when announcing the new mobile platform, this state of facts would provide developers with the possibility to come up more easily with applications that would offer support for both OSes.
This means that app builders will be able to target both the Metro interface of Windows 8 and the Windows Phone 8 platform with their software and earn more while working less.
In fact, almost two-thirds of the responded developers said that they were interested in what the upcoming Microsoft Surface tablets (based both on Windows 8 and Windows RT) have to offer.
Of course, given the small number of developers surveyed, the results do not necessarily mean that Windows Phone 8 will suddenly see a large number of developers announcing plans to build software for it.
However, given the wider availability of the accompanying Windows Phone Marketplace and the easier development process, we should not be surprised if that actually happens.