Gaming delivers developers to the iPhone
Why might you ask? Well, although productivity gains are driving sales and development of enterprise applications, the iPhone is increasingly the platform of choice for users wishing to waste time on the time.
Quoting data and analysis from Evans Data, Computerworld reports an overwhelming majority, some 94 percent, expect wireless application development to remain the same or increase in 2009. Further, as market adoption of JAVA Mini Edition and Microsoft’s .Net Compact Framework decline, those that have or plan to develop enterprise apps for the iPhone nearly tripled, rising from 8 percent to 20 percent over the last six months.
“I think the biggest driver on the enterprise side is the fact that many of the wireless applications that are being developed for the enterprise are improving productivity, which of course is key,” said John Andrews, Evans president and CEO.
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Further, although interest in Google’s Android also more than doubled from 7.5 percent to 18 percent, developers said that the opportunity for profit rather than platform openness was the top reason for choosing which platform to develop for.
Getting play in games
As much fun as it it might be to develop for the enterprise, according to fresh ComScore Data, mobile game downloads increased 17 percent last year and iPhone users are leading the charge.
“Last year, not one smartphone appeared in the top 10 devices used for mobile downloads. This year six out of 10 are smartphones, excluding devices with smartphone-like functionality, such as the Instinct and Voyager, which also make appearances,” said ComScore senior analyst Mark Donovan.
Further underscoring the rise of the smartphone, and the iPhone in particular, are these figures:
• 8.5 million people, or 3.8 percent of mobile subscribers, have downloaded a game to their cell phone
• 34 percent of those downloading games in November used a smartphone
• 32.4 percent of iPhone users have downloaded a game versus a market average of 3.8 percent
— iPhone owners accounted for 14 percent of mobile game downloads
• Mobile gaming market could top $4.5 billion this year
Furthermore, while Apple’s handset is the second most popular smartphone with 16.6 percent of the market, the most popular smartphone brand, Nokia, has seen its market share plummet from 63.3 percent to 43.6 percent, following the advent of the 3G iPhone.
Another factor that bodes well for gaming on Mobile OS X is that the iPod touch gives players access to titles in this exciting and rapidly development segment without a monthly contract.
So, mobile development in general and gaming in particular are both looking very, very positive for 2009 with the iPhone playing a leading role in both segments.
Is anyone else thinking AAPL at $90 looks cheap?
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