Filipino software developers favor iOs, Android mobile applications

CEBU, Philippines - Driven by their fascination for sophisticated technology, Filipino sofware developers are keen on developing mobile applications utilizing Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, a recent survey revealed.

The Software Skills Inventory Report from the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) indicated that as the demand for tablet PCs continues to grow on a global scale, the Philippines is catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to the latest gadgets.

Significantly, highly skilled Filipino developers now favor developing on these two most popular mobile applications — iOs and Android.

According to the report, iOs is the most favored development platform for Filipino mobile applications developers. Of the 10 companies surveyed for this specific area, 32 percent are developing on the iOS.

iOS is Apple’s operating system and touted as the world’s most advanced mobile platform installed in every Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices.

Likewise, 30 percent of local companies surveyed were already developing on the Android operating system, which is installed in numerous smartphones and tablet PCs.

The PSIA Software Skills Inventory Report, released by services and investment advisory group Tholons was commissioned by the PSIA and funded by then Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), to look into the performance of the domestic software development industry.

The report also revealed that Java ME, formerly a favorite development platform, was relegated to third place with only 17 of the surveyed companies still creating applications on this platform. Brew (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) remains at fourth place with nine percent. 

Even Nokia’s Symbian, once an ubiquitous smartphone OS, is at fifth place with only seven percent of companies still developing on it.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and the new Windows Phone OS on the other hand, are trailing behind at 5 percent.

Apart from the most favored mobile platform for software developers in the Philippines, other programming languages were also evaluated by the study.

The C/C++ is still the most dominant programming language used at 19 percent, followed by Java and JavaScript at 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively. C# and Visual Basic have 10 percent share each, while Microsoft.NET has eight percent.

Cobol and AJAX have six percent share for being favored programming languages while PHP is at five percent.

The survey further revealed that Filipino developers are also most dominant with Microsoft Windows Server and Windows NT for operating system platform at 43 percent. Linux commands a huge 33 percent share, followed by Linux at 13 percent.

PSIA president Nora Terrado said that the organization would continuously be looking for ways to further enhance the skills of Filipino developers as new and upcoming software platforms are introduced. In the case of the iOS and Android, the growth of the tablet PC and smartphones could also spur further development in these areas, which in turn can generate more revenues for Filipino software developers.

“Our goal is to make Filipinos easily adaptable to any new and upcoming platform so that we can sustain our presence in the global software development and services sector. The PSIA is lining up activities that are specifically targeted at upgrading the skill level of our developers,” Terrado said. (FREEMAN)