New Survey from Evans Data Provides Fresh Insight into Concerns of Developers in Developer Relations Programs

SANTA CRUZ, CA, February 1, 2003 - Microsoft Corp.’s MSDN was selected as the top developer program in the newly released 2003 Developer Relations Programs Annual Report, a survey of 500 developers conducted last month by Evans Data Corp. The survey found that more than twice as many developers selected Microsoft’s program as best overall than selected any other program.

One reason for the success of MSDN is the technical support it provides. More than 40% of developers, the largest plurality, cited MSDN as providing the best technical support, a crucial feature of developer programs. Another reason may be the extent of work that Microsoft has done in promoting online Usenet forums.

Ninety two percent of developers say an online forum is crucial and 30% say that online forums should be manned by technical personnel from the company. Microsoft has a very extensive Usenet forum presence with more than a thousand public forums, all well manned by Microsoft for the last ten years.

“We are delighted to see that MSDN is delivering on its mission of being the resource for developers,” said Sara Williams, product unit manager for MSDN at Microsoft. “Every day we are inspired to deliver better and better resources to help developers realize their full potential.”

Evans Data’s Developer Relations Programs Annual Survey represents the attitudes, awareness, perceptions and concerns of software developers in regards to developer programs. The larger goal of the survey series is to provide a resource for software vendors to help them create developer relations programs that will be both effective and readily accepted in the software development marketplace.

Some interesting findings from the survey of 500 professional developers included:

• Developers’ interest in certification has dropped significantly from the 2002 survey: 40% now think certification is important compared to 57% a year ago.
• Usage of development websites for software development is expected to see a substantial increase from 15% now to a combined 57% of developers extremely likely or somewhat likely to use a web marketplace for development.
• Development or engineering teams make the choice of which platforms to support in well over half the companies but only 8% say that decision is market driven.

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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