The Evans Wireless Development Survey is a detailed report of extensive, in-depth interviews with almost 500 developers active in wireless application or infrastructure development. It was conducted in March 2003.

What’s Your Primary Consideration when Choosing a Platform

	Figure 1: When chooosing a platform, which do you consider first?

The operating system of a wireless device, with its strengths, weaknesses, and various features, is the single most important component of development for the device itself. The degree of importance developers put on the kind of operating system is shown in this data. About 32 percent of developers say that this is their primary consideration when developing the application, while the makeup of the physical device itself is second with 23 percent. It is much more complicated to adjust for a change in the operating system when porting an app from one device to another than it is to change the device.

	Figure 2: When you write an app, do you typically target one or multiple devices?

Do You Target One Vendor’s Device or Multiple Vendors’ Devices?
Whenever an IT team or individual developer can build an application that can be reconfigured easily, quickly, and economically to be deployed on more than one platform, it makes sense to do so. Our data shows this to be a clear favorite (57 percent) among developers. Inevitably, there will be projects with limitations to one specific platform, and developers can continue to expect these kinds of assignments in the future.