Wireless Developers Target Netbooks

According to a recent Evans Data survey, one in five developers working on applications for wireless devices are currently writing applications to run on netbooks.

In addition, 24 percent of developers surveyed said they expect to be writing applications to run on netbooks in the coming year. Evans Data's new Wireless Development Survey is a study of the software development activities of more that 400 wireless developers. The survey measured intentions and adoption patterns through in-depth interviews on subjects related to wireless development. This includes platforms, carriers, programs, tools and the business of wireless development and distribution of wireless applications.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that although the number of developers currently developing wireless applications for netbooks is fairly equal across geographical regions, the number of those having plans for the coming year is almost twice as much in Asia as in other regions.

"Wireless developers recognize the growing importance of netbooks as a high growth alternative device target to the standard laptop," said John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data, in a statement. "These ‘super portable and low cost laptops’ are well suited to take advantage of the increasing availability of cloud-based applications.”

Other key findings of the survey include that 40 percent of the wireless developers surveyed said they are working on applications that offer an online payment solution. Also, AT&T is the carrier that wireless developers said they believe is providing the best mobile application distribution, the best tools and the best supported technologies. And support for particular programming languages is the primary consideration in selecting a target wireless platform, according to the survey.