One-in-Four Wireless Developers Adopting Rich Message Technology

SANTA CRUZ, CA, September 17, 2002 - Multimedia Messaging, a new rich media service for wireless communications, has captured the attention of wireless developers worldwide, two new surveys of wireless developers find.

The Evans Data Fall 2002 Wireless Developer Survey and Chinese Wireless Developer Survey, both conducted in August, reveal that almost one in four wireless developers have begun to write applications for the interoperable rich message format. More than 1,000 developers were interviewed for the companion surveys, which together provide a comprehensive, timely and detailed picture of global wireless development trends, attitudes and beliefs.

The Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) format, designed for person-to-person and commercial content delivery services, was launched in the past 18 months by Nokia and other global mobile communications leaders. The format is supported by a new generation of “imaging phones,” and mobile application software development toolkits.

In China, which has the world’s largest number of mobile phone subscribers, 29% of developers said they are working on MMS or will be this year. In the worldwide survey, 23% of respondents said they are or will be working on MMS this year. MMS provides the ability to send and receive video and still images combined with voice and text messages on a wireless device.

"We're continuing to survey wireless developers globally but also have inaugurated a separate survey that drills down on the Chinese wireless development market, which has experienced the most explosive growth," said Brian Cooper, market research analyst for Evans Data, the market intelligence source for the software developer industry. "The two surveys together explore business planning and staffing, technology adoption, enterprise and consumer markets and much more. Global leaders in IT hardware, software and services, armed with this data, can stay abreast of shifting application development trends and better target their efforts to the developer community."

Other findings of the companion surveys, in which the Chinese market contrasted significantly from the worldwide market, included:

• Chinese wireless developers are writing their applications with an eye to speed and quality. Among the top-ranked developer tools, performance-testing tools are considered one of the most important types of tools, and 70% of wireless applications spend more than a month in their quality assurance phase – 10% more so, on average, than among worldwide developers.
• PDAs, such as Palm Pilots, are not common development targets in China. Two thirds of worldwide developers in the Wireless Developers Survey target PDAs, making it the most common mobile target internationally. But in China, PDAs are close to the bottom of the list; even smart cards are more popular targets. Instead the Chinese are focused on cell phones.
• While E-mail has traditionally been a top-ranked wireless application in the Wireless Developers Survey, that’s not the case in China. Although E-mail accounts for 38% of wireless application development, that application type is in the #3 position. Instead, the top two wireless applications under development this year in China are consumer e-commerce applications (42%) and authentication (42%). (Respondents were permitted multiple answers for this question.)

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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