Consumer Oriented Application Development Jumps by 90% in One Year

SANTA CRUZ, CA, April 27, 2005 - Developers have yet to form long-term loyalty towards languages and tools in the wireless sector, 56% indicate they would consider changing programming languages or tools to mobilize applications more easily, presumably because 78% of wireless developers are writing new applications from the ground up as opposed to 58% who are extending legacy applications.

The most likely wireless applications to be created are in the commercial end-user space with four in ten applications falling into this category. While most of the types of wireless applications being developed have not changed significantly in the last year, consumer oriented applications (applications for the general population, not just for use within a company) have seen an almost 90% increase in development.

"While the wireless technology landscape has matured in so many ways, it is evident from this survey that wireless in general still represents a nascent market with significant opportunities. This survey indicates a clear opening for 'best of breed' mobility solutions to gain market share," said Albion Butters, a senior analyst with EDC.

Other findings from the April 2005 survey of nearly 500 wireless developers:

• Three quarters of wireless developers build solutions that are extensions of mission-critical applications and a quarter of those are extending more than half their mission-critical applications to mobile devices.
• The most prevalent means of connecting back-end applications to wireless applications are by the use of XML/SOAP/XML-RPC with almost a quarter of wireless developers preferring it to ADO.NET or messaging.
• Voice XML usage by wireless developers has doubled in the last six months to 23% and the usage of Flash is up by more than 60% in the last six months to 38% of wireless developers using the mark up language.
• More than 10% of wireless developers are currently working with RFID today and another quarter are evaluating the technology for future use.

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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