The smartphone world is awash with app stores and to keep those stores stocked with content those platforms rely upon developers to spend their time coming up with new and exciting apps. Do devs have enough time and resources to devote to all these different platforms though? That was the question posed to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop with regards to Windows Phone 7.
One dev posed the question of whether Windows Phone 7 could realistically grab enough dev time with the likes of Android and iOS dominating the scene. Elop responded:
When we consider developers, there is a series of things that must be true. You have to have reach, you have to believe you can monetise, you have to believe you have a valid developer platform, and finally you have to great developer tools.We’ve actually studied this and asked a lot of developers all over the world, and, while it's not the consensus, by far the majority view is that [the number of operating systems they develop for] is about 2.8 – 3 platforms. This was a critical question for us.So the statistics, according to Elop, show that devs are perfectly willing to develop for multiple platforms and that three platforms is something of a 'sweet' number for them in terms of what they are prepared to take on. Interestingly Elop went on to suggest that if the research had shown devs weren't willing to develop for Windows Phone 7 in addition to Android and iOS then that would have had an impact upon Nokia's decision to partner with Microsoft. The implication being that an Android partnership could then have been on the cards.
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