IM, No.1 with a bullet
A recent study shows instant messaging edging out e-mail as a priority for wireless developers
EVANS DATA, THE only company I know that surveys the developer community, is out with its latest: the Winter 2002 Wireless Developer Survey.
This survey is critical for the biggest mobile-device vendors and ISVs that are willing to pay lots of money to understand shifts in the market. Although this column doesn’t include the complete survey, it will give you an idea of what wireless mobile developers are up to. For more details go to www.evansdata.com and take out your checkbook.
Evans, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., surveyed about 600 wireless developers — finding them in their own warrens, so to speak — and somehow convinced them to stop what they were doing for a second and respond to the survey. Half the developers work for companies with 50 employees or fewer, and about 25 percent work for companies with more than 500 employees. Slightly more than 2 percent of that group are in companies with more than 1,000 employees.
The big surprise: IM (instant messaging) in its various forms — AOL-type IM, SMS (Short Message Service), and Unified Messaging — is suddenly the No. 1 developer target, with 47 percent of all developers working on IM solutions. E-mail is at 44.1 percent, down from the top when the survey was last taken six months ago. Following e-mail are wireless portals at 35.9 percent, then CRM and SFA (sales-force automation) at about 27 percent. It is gratifying to read that weather information is at the bottom (11 percent) — still too high.
Although we all seem to know that instant messaging in whatever form is popular among the teen and preteen set, especially in Japan and Norway, the new wrinkle is that businesses are looking at IM to “promote teamwork” and “increase efficiency,” according to the survey.
Another surprising finding: PDAs have moved ahead of cell phones with 68 percent of the developers targeting PDAs versus 59 percent for handsets. Six months ago it was a dead heat. Frankly, I predict that when the survey is taken six months from now, this will flip again.
Seeing these developers’ backgrounds is also interesting. A full 31.5 percent are developing commercial applications for ISVs, 22.7 percent on custom applications for system integrators, 22.7 percent for in-house corporate development, and another 11.2 percent for small workgroups within companies.
On the local front, 802.11b is still a top priority with one in four developers working on Wi-Fi solutions. That compares to one in five in the past study.
Finally, on the wide area front we are hearing that the wireless carriers will be driving J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) hard. In the Japanese market, it is being mandated by NTT DoCoMo and Masuhsta. The waves from the sea of Japan will soon create a ripple effect on both sides of the Atlantic. Here’s how that jibes with what Evans has: 32.8 percent of the respondents plan to adopt J2ME for their wireless solution and 42.3 percent plan to incorporate J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) into their wireless architecture (integrating into legacy systems).
