An Evaluation of Five Mobile Application Development Environments

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Summary

Nokia's decision to outsource development of its Symbian platform to Accenture signals the start of the final chapter for the smartphone operating system that once led the market. In just a few years, Google's Android and Apple's iOS have overtaken Symbian in many regions to become the preferred choice of not only consumers but also application developers.

Symbian's effective withdrawal has left no clear successor; Apple's iOS has certainly captured the hearts and minds of developers, but Android, with wide-ranging support from hardware manufacturers, was the primary smartphone operating system by volume in 1Q11. Nokia has vowed to fight its way back with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, and RIM's BlackBerry OS should not be discounted, especially as it launches BlackBerry OS 7 and gears up for a shift to QNX (see CCS Insight Hotline 2010-64: QNX Operating System Takes Central Role in RIM's PlayBook Tablet).

In this Hotline, we examine five major mobile application development environments from the perspective of a new developer. The report is not intended as a guide for commercial development companies, as their decisions are typically based on a range of factors, including the availability of skilled developers, potential returns on investment and whether an existing catalogue of titles can be ported to another platform. These elements are unique to each company and could not be addressed in a single Hotline.


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