DeviceAnywhere, a specialist in end-to-end mobile application testing, has launched DeviceAnywhere Metrics, the first research report which shows which mobile operating systems and handsets DeviceAnywhere customers are focusing their testing efforts on. The report is based on empirical data derived from application testing on the DeviceAnywhere system.
Key findings from DeviceAnywhere Metrics are:
* Smartphone Testing Increasing Rapidly Versus Feature Phones.
* A significant increase in smartphone testing compared to feature phones with 49.5% of total testing time in January ‘10 compared to 35.9% in January ‘09.
* This trend was most apparent on the Verizon network, which saw the total smartphone testing almost double on the DeviceAnywhere system over the past 12 months.
* BlackBerry Testing Dominates on DeviceAnywhere Test Center.
* BlackBerry is the number one manufacturer tested in DeviceAnywhere Test Center, accounting for seven of the top ten devices tested and fourteen of the top twenty devices.
* Testing on BlackBerry devices accounted for 28.9% of testing across all mobile devices.
* The BlackBerry 9000 (Bold) was the most tested device in January 2010.
* Android Testing On the Rise.
* From a standing start in 2009, Android has become the fourth most tested smartphone Operating System in DeviceAnywhere Test Center in the United States.
* The Android-based T-Mobile G1 has risen to become the most-tested device on the T-Mobile Virtual Developer Lab.
* Less Time Spent on Microsoft Windows Phones.
* The time spent on Windows Mobile dropped significantly from 26.5% in January ‘09 to 16.2% in January ‘10, as a proportion of total time spent on smartphones in DeviceAnywhere Test Center.
* Handset Manufacturers without Established App Stores Holding Up Well.
* While industry discussion has focused on app stores, testing on mobile devices from application developers, web, content and media companies has taken a wider view.
* The second, third and fourth most popular devices for testing on DeviceAnywhere Test Center are Samsung, Motorola and LG respectively, all of which do not yet have US application storefronts.
The DeviceAnywhere Metrics report includes handset testing data from DeviceAnywhere Test Center, a paid service which provides access to over 2000 handsets – including smartphones and feature phones – deployed across seven countries and over two dozen carrier networks. Over 1,000 customers, translating to over 10,000 active users, utilize this service to test their mobile content and applications on live mobile handsets over the internet. Over 350,000 handset testing hours were logged in DeviceAnywhere Test Center in 2009.
"Because we work directly with over 10,000 application developers from every segment of the mobile ecosystem, across all handset manufacturers and Operating Systems, we have privileged data on the broader trends in mobile application testing," said Faraz Syed, CEO of DeviceAnywhere. "Customers, analysts and standards bodies have consistently been asking for this data for a long time. So we finally decided to ‘open the vault' and share our knowledge, hoping that it benefits the industry as a whole by cutting through some of the hype and speculation that surrounds mobile application development."
Syed continued: "Of all the findings in the report, readers may be particularly surprised to find that the iPhone does not dominate testing time on DeviceAnywhere Test Center despite the remarkable volume of apps in the Apple App Store. This is partly because 10,000 professional developer users see the wider opportunities on other handsets and Operating Systems. Moreover, there are a lot of smaller developers focused entirely on the iPhone, who are probably testing on their own device or devices. With that said, if fragmentation continues-including more iterations such as the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and the iPad on multiple networks-then we expect to see increased iPhone testing activity show up correspondingly in the data."