Violet Lieby
831.425.8063
vlieby@evansdata.com
SANTA CRUZ, CA, March 18, 2002 - The enormous popularity of Instant Messaging as a consumer and business communications tool is spreading from desktop computing to mobile communications, a new study of wireless software developers finds.
While AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have led the way in IM’s popularization, the new study finds that handset makers, wireless technology developers and wireless carriers are increasingly developing instant messaging applications.
According to the new Evans Data Winter 2002 Wireless Developers Survey, messaging has overtaken e-mail as the most popular application with almost half of all wireless developers developing messaging applications. These messaging applications include Instant Messaging, SMS and Unified Messaging.
The interviews with developers who are actively engaged in wireless applications also found that the pace of wireless development continues to accelerate. The percentage of respondents who will devote 50% or more of their time to wireless applications will increase from 19% to 24% since the last Evans survey six months ago.
The more than 600 developers interviewed said they would also develop applications involving e-mail, consumer e-commerce, wireless portal development and mobile positioning (location-based services).
“Messaging has become even more important to developers than e-mail,†said Evans Data wireless analyst Jay Dixit. “We’ve seen a boom in messaging among teenagers, who have developed an entire culture around wireless messaging, but the study also strongly suggests that businesses want to use messaging to promote teamwork and increase efficiency.â€
Developers also spoke to Evans Data about adoption of wireless infrastructure technologies. The survey shows that 802.11b Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology is continuing to gain ground. Almost one in four developers are currently working with the “Wi Fi†technology, compared to less than one in five in the last study.
Two other closely watched technologies, Bluetooth and HomeRF, have seen levels of adoption unchanged over the past six months.
Another finding is that HTTPS is maintaining its leading position as a security standard. The most popular wireless security protocol was HTTPS (the standard Web protocol for accessing a secure Web server by encrypting and decrypting both page requests and Web pages), with 39% of respondents saying they will target it first.
The "Winter 2002 Wireless Developer Survey" is the fourth in a survey series focused exclusively on developers creating wireless applications. The primary objective is to clearly represent the attitudes, awareness, perceptions and concerns of wireless developers on a wide range of topics, including: Development Platforms, Development & Deployment Plans, Application Plans, Technology Adoption Trends, Developer Environment & Tools, Applications Languages & Testing, and Educational & Market Resources.
Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.
Copyright 2007 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.
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