We all know that Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer loves developers. If you’ve somehow missed his infamous video clip over the past few years, go here and pick your poison.
There’s just one problem with this love. Since the launch of Windows Vista, apparently it’s unrequited.
Only 8 percent of developers are writing applications for Vista this year, according to a report from Evans Data. Again, not eighty percent — eight.
By 2009 that number is expected to triple to a still abysmal 24 percent. That’s a major problem. Why? Because shortly thereafter, Windows 7, the codename for the next iteration of Microsoft’s operating system is expected to launch.
If these numbers have any merit, that means that Vista throughout its lifespan will basically be a non-starter. It’s going to be hard to sell an operating system if no one is writing applications for it.
Despite Ballmer’s claims that Vista is selling “incredibly well,” it’s hard to find anyone outside of Microsoft would doesn’t consider the operating system to be a major disappointment. In fact, Vista is becoming such a problem that some are now expecting its slow adoption rate to shave some $395 million off of Microsoft’s revenues in the 2009 fiscal year.
This follows a report from a few months ago suggesting that the Windows operating system was on the verge of collapsing.
Granted, the 8 percent data is taken from only 380 North American developers surveyed, but over half of them said they were still developing for previous iterations of Windows. Meanwhile, Apple’s OS X has seen a 380 percent surge in growth as a targeted development platform.
It might be time for an encore of “Developers, developers, developers, developers.”
12:55 pm
Global Nerdy | Evans Data Survey: Less Than 1 in 10 Developers Writing Apps for Vista said:
[...] c|net cites an Evans Data report: “A recent report from Evans Data shows fewer than one in 10 software developers writing applications for Windows Vista this year. Eight percent. This is perhaps made even worse by the corresponding data that shows 49 percent of developers writing applications for Windows XP.” Here’s VentureBeat’s take on this report. [...]
2:17 pm
Artificial Ignorance - Anand Iyer's Blog : How to get TechMeme’d – write about something bashing Vista said:
[...] This morning, I read Matt Asay’s article on CNET about “92% of developers ignoring Vista”. Just like the title of my post, the title of his post is extremely misleading. If you’ve read some of Asay’s posts in the past, especially when it comes to Microsoft related articles, I think you’ll notice that Asay is a glass half-empty kind of guy. Also, MG Siegler followed up with a post that looked eerily similar on VentureBeat: “Developers, developers, developers ignoring, ignoring, ignoring, Vista”. [...]
4:04 am
Startup Meme » Blog Archive » Windows Vista? No way, says developers said:
[...] 380 developers were surveyed, among which only 8% were writing for Vista and to make things worse, 49% were still writing for Windows XP. One of the reasons might be the release of Windows 7 which is due next year. According to another report, 73% of the market share is still maintained by XP. [...]
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Ballmer techno mix said:
[...] you just love it when monkey boy does his show ? Too bad the developers doesn’t hear his call [...]
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Developeři! Developeři! Developeři! …kde se pasou? said:
[...] VentureBeat Zhodnoť to:: [...]
11:49 am
Everyone is bullish on Mac development — even Microsoft » VentureBeat said:
[...] news follows a somewhat controversial report claiming that developers were largely ignoring many of the “perks” Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, [...]