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Survey lacks information

5200 Apple Developers at 2011 WWDC in attendance. 45 surveyed. 0.0086% of Developers surveyed & yet you must post some widely interpolated projections that this is a REFLECTION of the direction that developers are going to write this news story for FORTUNE?

Get a more IN DEPTH survey results before writing an article FORTUNE. Lame.:(
 
If you look at Q1 2011 sales of iOS devices vs. OS X devices, OS X devices account for ~9% of those sales making the OS X market share pretty much in line with this survey.
 
This shouldn't really be a shock to anyone....you'd be blind not to notice Apple's lack of care for Mac developers over the last few years. Even the Mac App Store - it only exists because Apple get a nice profit from sales.

The way its going devs will be all over Android, especially if Google manage to get this fragmentation stuff sorted out next year.

Down vote me all you like, facts are facts.

Computers are computers. Macs are computers. In the Post-PC world they have less sex-appeal for the average consumer. THAT is the problem, not Apple's lack of attention. Frankly, I'm surprised Apple gives Macs there attention they do. It's a nice surprise. A lot of tech outfits aren't able to do both - or they do one and consistently fumble the other. Apple does great things in both areas.

Android has nothing to do with OS X development. Devs who don't like the way the Mac is going are free to develop for iOS. Where the money is - in the entire mobile industry.
 
Ok, so in summary, Munster talked with a few people in his hotel bar and started drawing conclusions: First, developers at the Apple developer conference like developing for Apple. Second, mobile application developers also try to develop on multiple mobile platforms with Android barely edging out "none" for second most common. Third, developers spending time developing on Android think Android has potential. And finally, the biggest problem with the App Store is other.

Then he rolls this all into the conclusion that the Mac isn't generating interest.

Thanks, Gene, I appreciate you taking the time to phone this one in...
 
The questions aren't complete. They asked developers of iOS if they develop for Mac OS. But they do not ask them if they develop for other computer OS's.

The results give an impression of bad news for OS X. But what about all computer OS vs. mobile OS?
 
This is a mockery of statistics.

Sample size... wow. Talk about not controlling for bias. Also, how can you even compare the two years when half of the fields are n/a? You would need at least some context in order to get a realistic perspective on market and "mindshare" changes.

How did they gather these respondents... I'm pretty sure it wasn't a stratified random sample...
 
For PCs, in their current form, the direction is down. Unless they're taking cues from mobile tech. Mobile tech is the well from which everyone drinks. The mobile sphere is currently the main influence for nearly all consumer tech.

If you're a consumer tech company and you don't have a smartphone/app store/tablet strategy, you're doing it wrong. And if you deal in the enterprise side, you'd better get moving *now* before someone else does in a big way.

Computers are computers. Macs are computers. In the Post-PC world they have less sex-appeal for the average consumer. THAT is the problem, not Apple's lack of attention. Frankly, I'm surprised Apple gives Macs there attention they do. It's a nice surprise. A lot of tech outfits aren't able to do both - or they do one and consistently fumble the other. Apple does great things in both areas.

Android has nothing to do with OS X development. Devs who don't like the way the Mac is going are free to develop for iOS. Where the money is - in the entire mobile industry.

Yes, all the money is in mobile tech but it won't change the way people use PCs. Tablets cannot do intensive work. I'll give you an example - Ferrari makes great cars with sophisticated tech. Toyota launches a simple sedan and it sells millions. Toyota's success will not decide the future. People who buy Ferrari will still buy Ferrari. Its not like Ferrari will stop producing sports cars and start making sedans. Same can be told about PCs, PCs are used for a purpose. Unlike tablets which can do only simple things like browsing, e-mail, ebooks and light editing.
 
Lets see the data collection method was garbage. This means that the data was garbage which means the results are Garbage.

Garbage in = Garbage out.
 
lies

lies, i have a blackberry and i can promise you if 36% of the people making apps for iphone were also making them for BB the BB apps store wouldnt suck as much as it does. it probably has 300 apps and only 2 useful, and whats sad is im hardly exaggerating.
 
The questions aren't complete. They asked developers of iOS if they develop for Mac OS. But they do not ask them if they develop for other computer OS's.

The results give an impression of bad news for OS X. But what about all computer OS vs. mobile OS?
Exactly. Now, if they had asked 1000 devs, and if they had also asked how many were developing for Windows, and if that percentage was more than 9 times the percentage developing for Mac OS, then it would be something Apple should worry about.
 
Apple's Mac App Store is doing well, thanks.
Figures are not available but I believe the 10,000 apps milestone has been reached.
And also Why would Amazon bother doing it's own Mac AppStore if the Mac development were in dire straits.
 
This is a crap survey. Only 20 people in 2007 and 45 people this year? Thats a TINY sample size.. not even big enough to make these statistics significant.

Agreed. Not to mention, I doubt this is the same people, so "shying away" seems a bit extreme. In 2008, more Mac focused developers went (still in the honeymoon phase of Rosetta and Intel switch).

Now, the focus is mobile apps. The attendees just skew more mobile.

And GREAT GAME last night! Go B's!!!!
 
Steve has made no such thing clear. Based on everything I've heard him say, I believe he imagines a world where the iPad becomes far more prevalent than PCs. Within the home, I think this makes some sense. The iPad is a great device for the sort of activities people typically use a PC for at home — casual web browsing, social interaction, and certainly games. It's portable, compact, affordable, and most of all fun. So where previously a family might have owned four PCs, that family might, in the future, own three iPads and one PC. Steve described this world by comparing PCs to trucks and tablets to cars — there are a lot more cars on the road, but trucks still have their place.

So, 'Post PC' is a term given to an era where touchscreen devices like the iPad start to dominate. It doesn't imply the death of the PC.

Does Steve really believe in such a world? Probably. But in a way he's also using it (as a marketing term) to try and create that future sooner rather than later — because Apple has the early lead when it comes to tablets, and it's a lead they dearly want to cement as quickly as possible. If they can get people to believe the iPad is the future, then some of those people might just hold off on buying that next PC in favour of an iPad, and I think Steve's confident enough that they'll be sold by the experience of owning one.

I predict (and you can quote me in ten years) that the Mac still has a long and healthy life ahead of it. Just don't expect Apple to pour the same amount of advertising into it as it does for iOS devices.

Very well-thought out and well-put; I just hope I'm wrong and you're right.

Once Lion comes out, I'll put this thread in my Reading List and, assuming the feature still exists, pull it up in 10 years to see how close the prediction was. :cool:
 
Very well-thought out and well-put; I just hope I'm wrong and you're right.

Once Lion comes out, I'll put this thread in my Reading List and, assuming the feature still exists, pull it up in 10 years to see how close the prediction was. :cool:

Ha ha… No worries. See you in 10 years! :)
 
I can see the iPad evolving into a dual device in the future, when hardware technology allows fitting OS X-capable CPU, GPU and RAM inside the from factor.
You could have a docking-station including an OS X (or whatever version of the OS we'll be in) bootable drive, so the iPad can work as a Mac when docked and switch back to iOS when removed. Or maybe large capacity SSD's will be common enough to not even require the docking-station.
The real question seems to be whether it's a good idea or not to marry touch-screen with 'traditional' human interfaces (keyboard, mouse, trackpad...). At this point, Apple is unwilling to go that way, hence the clear separation between iOS and OS X/Mac.
 
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