It’s sure looking like Google’s going to have to pull some all-nighters in May if it’s going to make that “developers will ship for Android first by June” prediction. The Macalope’s not sure what Google would be doing during those all-nighters…
And, frankly, it appears Google doesn’t know what it should be doing, either.
“Survey: Developer interest in Android slowly eroding”
While Google doesn’t have to worry about app developers fleeing Android en masse, they might be concerned that developer interest appears headed in the wrong direction.
Ugh, is the Macalope going to have to employ the “Gosh, it seems like it was just back in December that Eric Schmidt said something about…” construction again? Because gosh, it seems like it was just back in December that Eric Schmidt said something about…
One Android-toting audience member said he was frustrated to see iOS apps beating Android versions to market. But in part because of Ice Cream Sandwich, “my prediction is that six months from now you’ll say the opposite,” Schmidt said.
This must be some sort of crazy business aikido move where you have to pull the number of Android developers down to make them go up.
A new survey of more than 2,100 app developers released jointly by IDC and mobile development platform vendor Appcelerator Tuesday found that 78.6 percent of developers were interested in creating apps for Android smartphones during the first quarter of 2012, down from the 83.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and down from around 87 percent in the first quarter of 2011.
Well, maybe a smaller, more committed number of developers will mean they ship on Android first. Or maybe down is up and up is down in a crazy, mixed-up world gone mad where Google is the last sane man and we’re all mad.
Or maybe Google’s chief executive has no idea what he’s talking about.
“Massive platform fragmentation is a big reason that we’re seeing this decline in interest,” says Mike King, a former Gartner analyst who now works as Appcelerator’s principal mobile strategist.
Schmidt thought that Ice Cream Sandwich was going to entice developers to shipping on Android first. For an audience amounting to just 1.6 percent of Android users.
The fact that Google sometimes apparently forgets to cut developers their checks probably doesn’t help either (tip o’ the antlers to the Loop).
Android app developers have complained about a hold-up in payments from Google.
Europe-based software writers have posted hundreds of comments on the company’s forums, saying their February fees had not been received on 7 March as scheduled.
Now, the Macalope’s just a mythical beast skilled at little more than goring silly pundits. But it seems to him that if you want to encourage developers to ship on your platform, you might make paying them a priority.
Whatever the case, the horny one can’t wait until June! If he were Schmidt he’d be looking into what wine goes with crow.
[Editors’ Note: In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]