Amazon Fire and Windows Phones have developers' interest, says report

Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia are the star players in a new report from Appcelerator and research firm IDC, which surveyed 2,100-plus developers about their priorities and perceptions of mobile OS trends.

With analysts predicting strong sales for the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Android tablet that begins shipping today (Unfiltered: Amazon gets Fire started a day early), the report's most notable finding is arguably that in North America, developers are more interested in the Fire than the strong-selling Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The tablets grabbed 49% and 48% of the vote, respectively, when devs were asked which Android tablet they were most interested in developing for. Worldwide, however, the Galaxy Tab continued to prevail, with 56% of the vote, to the Kindle Fire's 43%.

That 49% interest in the Fire, the report notes, is just 4 points off of where the Apple iPad was, just before its April 2010 debut.

Despite shortcomings like a lack of a camera and geo-location, as well as Android fragmentation, the reason for the developers' strong interest is said to be pricing.

"Appcelerator and IDC found in January 2011 that among developers price was the single most important factor for Android tablets to compete successfully against the iPad," states the report.

"Fast forward to November 2011 and developers cite price again as the leading reason for interest in the Kindle Fire. Rounding out the top five tablets," it continues, "respondents eye Amazon’s rich content ecosystem, Appstore, target demographic and eCommerce integration as the key reasons for interest in the new eReader."

As for Microsoft, which has been wrestling with BlackBerry-maker RIM for the number-three platform position, the report found Microsoft the clear winner, with 38% of developers saying they were "very interested" in developing for the platform — a new high for Microsoft and a significant jump from April and June figures.

Driving this, said the report, were anticipation of Nokia Lumia sales, the Windows Phone Mango release and the potential for tablets with Windows 8 integration.

"What’s interesting is how different parts of the world view the importance of Windows Phone and why," it explained. "Appcelerator’s global developer base is close to evenly split throughout North America (37%), Europe (38%) and the rest of the world (25%). We looked at Windows Phone interest across geographies and saw differing levels of interest and rationale."

While interest in Europe and Asia was linked to Microsoft's partnership with Nokia, in North America the number one reason for the potential for tablets and Windows 8.

Either way, the news was good for Nokia, and there was still more. The report further found 28% of global developers interested in building for the Nokia Lumia — which is not only double the levels of interest shown for Nokia's old Meego or Symbian platforms, since Appcelerator began tracking in Jan. 2010, but is currently even more interest than the BlackBerry PlayBook (13%) or smartphones (21%) have.

If anyone needs more proof than Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft man, made the right call in jumping ship from Symbian and swimming for Microsoft, this would seem to be it.