Apple Watch sales around 7 million units total - yet more dev attention than WinPhone?

[runamuck83]

Something strange seems to be going on that just doesn't add up.

We hear all the time the reason that devs ignore Windows Phone is that "market share is just too low". "It's a chicken and an egg problem". Whatever...

If marketshare alone is the driving factor, how can it be that the Apple Watch is receiving such significant attention from developers? It's a companion product to an iPhone and estimated to only have moved about 7 million units globally to date - but devs are ready to go all in on the thing.

The same question can be raised with the Apple TV - it's barely released and dev after dev is announcing their support for this thing. Meanwhile, they look upon Windows Phone and poo-poo it.

Is the Apple "love-affair" that strong with devs that they will go out of their way to take chances on their new devices? With Windows 10 already on over 110+ million devices, and Windows 10 Mobile upgrade looming for all existing devices out there (probably in the 10s of millions), what is their excuse for being so tepid with Win 10 universal apps?

 

[Steve Adams]

To answer your question about the almighty fruit. Yes, Dev's will go out of their way to create for apple. Its the "IN" thing to do. Their excuse is that its not apple. Simple as that.

 

[Jon_Rubinstein]

I have a love hate relationship with developers....A great number of them are just like the sheep....I don't blame them.....but I am willing to bet that if tomorrow the Fruit decided to cut developer's profit by taking 90% of their cut, that most of them would cry yell but would still continue to be a sheep. That is just the world we live in.....I lived through it....

 

[Steve Adams]

Totally. Most of them are sheep like the rest. They have the chance to make some good profits on windows 10 now that the "project whatever" is setup. But it sounds like most will just say bahhhhhhhh.

 

[anon(2523636)]

Given that the apps basically run on the iPhone and use the watch as a remote input/output device, if the dev is an iPhone dev then it is nothing for them to extend their app to use watch - therefore it doesn't really matter the Watch sales, its all about phone sales. The Apple TVOS is also basically iOS skinned, again porting is easy.
Windows 10 app development and making universal will come, but given the mobile OS is not yet complete I doubt you will see much apart from the existing dedicated devs.