DZone's 2014 Guide to Mobile Development presents an analysis of the current state of mobile development with survey results from over 1000 mobile developers.

DZone has also produced an infographic with the title, Game of Phones to illustrate the "Worldwide Battle for Mobile Developer Mindshare" in which four mighty (and not so mighty) Houses are ranged against one another.

The apt motto for House of iOS reads "We are the Watchers on the Walled Garden" while that of House of the Web is "The Brotherhood Without Platforms". "Free As In Beer" for Android seems fairly suitable but I'm not convinced by "Windows is Coming".

The infographic sums up the mobile developer mindshare, pointing out geographical differences. Android is the prevalent platform in all five regions but iOS is almost equally popular in North America and the gap between them is widest in South America.

(Click in infographic to enlarge)

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The top strength of iOS, which it shares with HTML Web Apps is the ability to reach most users. This plus point comes second among the strengths for Android, for which being open source comes top. For Windows the speed and cost is the main plus point, followed by documentation and community resources, which is also considered as Android's third strength.

Also of interest is which platform that takes priority in terms of time and effort. A third of those surveyed nominated iOS - presumably because of this platform's ability to generate revenue. Android came second (27%); the Web third (23%) and Windows really trailed behind with 4%. 

What comes over emphatically from the infographic is the developers target multiple platforms. So among Windows devs 88% are also interested in Android; 79% in iOS and 63% in Web apps. On the other hand, only 26% of Android devs target Windows and the proportion of those concentrating on iOS and the Web is only slightly higher at 28%.

For more information about the survey, profiles of 39 popular Mobile Development solutions and in-depth articles you can log into (or register at) DZone to download the 2014 Guide to Mobile Development.

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