Windows Mobile goes from first to last in software development in 1 year

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

The other side of the coin. While it's not a huge surprise that software development for Windows Mobile has dwindled, especially with the clean break of Windows Phone 7 around the corner, it is a bit shocking at how fast it fell. (See the other study today about number of apps users have by mobile OS).

According to iGR, last year Windows Mobile was "by far the most popular" in terms of number of developers writing apps for it. Flash forward one year later and it's now dead last.

The iPhone of course is number one with 53% of developers writing programs for it. Perhaps more telling is that more than half of those who currently aren't making iPhone apps, plan to do so within in the next year. Yowza. 

Blackberry was number two, ahead of Android which was sort of interesting, though we imagine those two will swap positions very soon as Android has received lots of momentum in the last 4 months. No word about Windows Phone 7 and developer plans, though judging by the attendance at the Microsoft ReMix events, it's looking very good.

Unfortunately, we don't have access to the raw numbers which would tell us more.

[FierceMobileContent via AppScout]

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

7 Comments
  • Great news! One thing I wonder, is there any OFFICIAL statement from MS about continuing support for WM, because as it stands there will probably be no one left to release software or buy WM before WP7 even launches.
  • "Developers! Developers! Developers!" Mr. Balmer, it's time to pound on that table again - but developers will not come unless there is a market. A truth from 60 years of IT - lack of applications will kill an operating system.
  • lack of a current development environment will kill applications - lack of applications will kill an operating system.
    They remove winMo development support from visual studio and somebody's surprised that the number of developers for the platform goes down?
  • This was always going to happen with such a big paradigm shift.. but I don't think they had a choice.. how else to reverse the long term structural decline other than junking their entire legacy infrastructure? MS were dead for sure otherwise. Android will hoover up the techheads & Apple the Fashionistas. At least iPhone buyers are interested in paid for apps - so no suprise that WP7 is headed in that direction
  • R.I.P
    I better start looking harder for Android alternatives to my usual apps. Does anyone know good ListPro and TimeTTracker MX2 equivalent on Android?
  • What's been more discouraging to me personally is that some of the 'best' developers for WM previously (like SPB and Kinoma) have both largely dropped the ball when it comes to ongoing updates to their current WM products.
  • Blackberry was number two, ahead of Android which was sort of interesting, though we imagine those two will swap positions very soon as Android has received lots of momentum in the last month and so.One thing I wonder, is there any OFFICIAL statement from MS about continuing support for WM, because as it stands there will probably be no one left to release software. Candy Wrapper