iPhone and Android Developers Discuss Future of Apps Market

A group of iPhone and Android developers met in downtown Washington D.C. to discuss the current app market and customers’ growing demand for Android and iPad apps.

By Avery Fellow | March 11, 2010

Sze Wong - Zerion Software

Benjamin Young - CY Strategy

Jack Kustanowitz - HealthCentral

The Washington iPhone/Android/Smartphone Developers Group  held their monthly meet-up in downtown D.C. for the first time, uniting for a roundtable discussion about the current app market.

"I’ve been developing iPhone apps for years now, but I’m thinking now I have to get into Android," said Sze Wong, founder and president of Zerion Software, a mobile software development firm.

The developers cited an increased demand for Google Android apps since the phone hit the marketplace, suggesting that the Android apps business will soon surpass the market for iPhone apps.

But among the millions of Android users, not a lot of the phone’s owners are downloading, developers said.

"Most of the apps I use on my Android are the ones that came with it," said Benjamin Young, managing director at C.Y. Strategy, a consulting firm based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Isaac Mosquera, cofounder and chief technology officer of mobile app developer PointAbout Inc., based in Washington, D.C., quoted research from Gartner showing that in 2009, out of 2.5 billion total app downloads, the Apple iTunes App Store accounted for all but 16 million downloads.

But the developers still have plans to make apps for Android.

"We hope the Google platform will continue to evolve and remain an open marketplace for developers," said Jack Kustanowitz, vice president of software engineering at HealthCentral, an online medical news and resource hub based in Arlington, Virginia.

As for the iPad market, developers said customers are more concerned with design than functionality at this stage.

The developers roundtable was held at 1410Q, a new entrepreneur hotspot in downtown Washington, D.C. near Dupont Circle.


Related Keywords : mobile technology , apps

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