Platformer blues

"I've got a great idea for an app - but what phones should I write it for?"

It's an interesting question and - as it turns out - the answer is harder than I thought. Now, in an ideal world, you'd just write and release it for all the major smartphone OSs - Symbian, iOS, Android and RiM. But that's quite a lot of effort for just one person! So how do you maximise your returns or exposure for minimal effort?

First of all, it's probably an idea to think about what language you're comfortable working in, and what operating systems that the language plays well with.

• Nokia -- a whole variety of languages supported, so you'll pretty much have to pick the one you want and grab the relevant package for it.
• RiM Blackberry -- Java
• Android -- Java
• iOS -- one of the C languages. You'll also need (yes, really - it's mandatory) a Mac.

Next up, let's look at the different platform distributions (data from Gartner).

• Symbian: 41%
• RiM: 18%
• Android: 17%
• iOS: 14%

It might be worth noting, though, that the market share for Android jumped from 1% in 2009 to 17% in 2010 - obviously this might not be indicative of future trends, but Google have put a lot of effort into getting it onto as many handsets as possible. Also of note is that Oracle are currently taking legal action against Google for unlicensed use of the Java platform - though the future of that action is somewhat uncertain.

Lastly, we'll need to have a look at the different distribution systems for the different operating systems. (This is just a summary, though - there are multiple delivery platforms for most operating systems, so you don't have to follow the well-trodden path - it might just be a lot easier! Also, having not personally explored them inch by inch, there may still be pitfalls to discover...)

• iOS: Sign up for an AppStore developer account - this is $99 per year, and lets you distribute your apps through the AppStore, after they've been checked out by Apple.
• Android: Sign up as an Android Market developer for $25 (one-off fee), and this lets you distribute your apps through the Android Marketplace. However, there are caveats here based on countries - the list of countries where you can charge for your apps is currently quite small.
• Nokia's Ovi store: Sign up for $50 to register yourself as a publisher - this lets you upload content for distribution via the Ovi store.
• RiM's Blackberry AppWorld: I can't find a price for signing up as a developer, but again, there's a central hub for app distribution.

Most seem to offer a standard 30% distribution charge.

So, where does this leave us? Personally, I'm going to carry on working with Android for now - I think that it has a good future ahead of it, and I'm far more comfortable working in Java than with C. At some point, I'd like to give the iOS development thing a go, but it would mean buying another computer, which would be a little annoying.