47% of developers want to adopt Windows Phone,
poor consumer adoption is holding them back

Microsoft’s Windows 8 & Phone 8 strategy brings a unified Metro interface to all devices and enables significant code sharing between apps across PCs, tablets and smartphones. However these synergies have yet to pay off and Windows Phone is facing a bootstrapping issue despite Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar investment in the platform. Lack of developer interest is not the issue here, as highlighted by the high levels of Intentshare. Developers seem to be on standby, waiting for the market signals – the consumer adoption – that justify an investment in the platform. The 55% intentshare from the 2012 survey has not resulted in a single percentage point increase in mindshare (still at 21%). Moreover, Microsoft’s attempt to fund development of Windows Phone apps created misalignment of developer incentives. Instead of focusing on consumers, developers were focused on getting the easy money, which resulted in sub-par apps. As we have said before, you can’t buy developer love.

The majority of mobile developers have already adopted iOS and Android, hence the relatively low Intentshare among those platforms. However, among developers that have yet to adopt one of these two platforms, interest is quite high: 77% of developers in our survey that have not yet adopted Android, plan to adopt it – for iOS the figure stands at 61%. So these two platforms are still on the radar for developers that have yet to adopt them.

Beyond iOS and Android, mobile developers are showing interest in Facebook, with 23% of mobile developers indicating that they plan to adopt the platform. Facebook offers little in terms of mobile app development at present but it provides unprecedented reach. With around 1Bn active users, it is one of the widest reaching digital platforms on the planet.

The considerable levels of Intentshare for Windows Phone (47%) and BB10 (15%) indicate that there is still developer interest in a viable third app ecosystem.

[doritos_report location=’DE13 Article – Windows Phone: buy it and they will come’]