If you thought you had a home screen replacement app that brought versatility to your Android smartphone before, you’ll be blown away by Themer. There’s a beta release going on right this minute with codes being pushed in waves – always keep a line at the door, of course – and the app will be […]
Straight out of Samsung’s own device archives comes a listing for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Developer Edition with 4G LTE from Verizon Wireless here in the USA. This device will almost certainly be released with its bootloader unlocked and ready to roll for developers (and hackers) galore. This device will also be appearing with […]
This January we’ll be seeing another major gaming event the likes of which will be a lot closer to what we’ve seen in Apple’s WWDC and Google I/O in years past. What we’ve got here is Steam Dev Days, a two-day event to be held in 2014 in Seattle Washington. This series of talks will […]
Apple has reached a milestone with the next version of OS X by seeding the Golden Master of OS X Mavericks to developers. The release of the Golden Master of the operating system comes a couple weeks after the Mavericks Developer Preview was made available. The Golden Master edition of Mavericks is the almost the […]
The Gold Master version of OS X Mavericks is now available for developers. That means that OS X Mavericks has reached the final build and is ready to go to customers. What we see in this build will be exactly what everyone sees when they upgrade to Mavericks.
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Candy Crush game maker King has filed for IPO in the United States to the tune of $5 billion, making it the largest IPO for a UK-based company in years. The S-1 filing echoes that of Twitter’s recent IPO in that it lets the fast-growing company keep the move confidential, but the gigantic valuation can […]
Appcelerator, a company that supports multi-platform development, released its quarterly developer report today. The survey helps track market interest in the various platforms, tacking changing winds.
The third-quarter report details Microsoft’s difficult market position: The percentage of respondents (developers, CIOs, etc.) that are “very interested” in building apps for Microsoft’s smartphones and tablets is low. Twenty-five percent said that they were very interested in building for Microsoft’s tablets, while 26 percent expressed strong interest in building for Microsoft’s smartphone platform.
As CiteWorld reported, those numbers are down several percentage points from the start of the year. Even as its new platforms have matured, Microsoft has lost developer interest in Windows Phone and its tablet efforts.
The percentage of respondents “very interested” that Microsoft lost in the past few quarters (3 percent for smartphones, 5 percent for tablets) isn’t lethal, but it’s not moving in the right direction. Microsoft has a long history of building developer platforms. And it is utterly dedicated to making the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store bear out as bets and investments.
In a way, it doesn’t have a choice: It cannot cede the mobile market, and to play in that space it needs developer support.
Microsoft has a trick up its sleeve, however. As Tom Warren of The Verge reported earlier today, the company is working to unite its Windows and Windows Phone app stores. This is not a surprise – merely more unification of the larger Windows platform as expected – but it could be helpful. Developers want to build for big platforms. Windows 8 and Windows Phone are smaller in pieces than they are in aggregate, and so their fusion could lead to a more interesting developer pitch.
Current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently stated that his company has “almost no share” in mobile devices. That must change for Microsoft to retain any sort of relevance in the consumer world. And I think that some underestimate the importance of that slice of Microsoft’s DNA in its continued relevance in other market sectors.
A few other data points: 6 percent of developers claimed to be “very interested” in developing for BlackBerry tablets. 80 percent stated that they were as into building for the iPhone. Microsoft is stuck in the middle.
Top Image Credit: Microsoft Sweden
Nest has announced a new developer program for its Learning Thermostat, a nifty device that has receive quite a bit of attention in recent times. Under the program, developers will be able to participate in creating a widespread “connected experience for the home,” something that the maker is detailing now but will officially start early […]
Earlier this week, the Verizon version of the Moto X Developer Edition went up for sale, bringing with it a $649.99 price tag and the promise that a GSM version for use on T-Mobile and AT&T would soon follow. Such a handset is now up for sale on Motorola’s website, bearing the same price tag […]
There’s a big possibility we’ll be seeing the smartphone brand known as Oppo take center stage in the smartphone universe soon – at least in the developer an hacker circuit for Android. What we’ve seen today is an announcement by CyanogenMod’s own Steve Kondik saying that he’ll be excited to attend the Oppo N1 launch […]
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