Statistics for Developers

I have seen a lot of software developers not keeping up with whats happening around the world, unaware of the deployment landscape thus using development methodologies which will in the end make their software unusable by the end user. For example, I still meet a lot of web developers who test their websites only on the default IE installed, do not care about mobile browser display resolutions.

I came across some very good statistics websites which I want to share with the rest of the developer community. These statistics can also be of use to clients who need to get software developed but don't know what they should be asking for in terms of technical requirements.

• Statistics for popular programming languages being used today. Look here and here. Java and C seem to be very popular but you need to keep in mind that these stats do not take into account the type of software being developed. For example you would not use C to make a website. But if you were to create a fast, native application for a mobile platform like Symbian or iPhone, you will have to use C or C++.
  
  
• The most common browsers being used today can be seen here. Firefox has a huge user base. Safari and Chrome are also picking up.
  
  
• Display resolutions statistics can be seen here. 1024x768 still rules but 38% of screens now use a much higher resolution. This list shows that some details of what kind of high resolutions are in use today.
  
  
• Operating System statistics can be seen here. Some more OS stats can be seen here. Windows XP of course rules the desktop. But I am surprised to see that the Mac has a significant share of 5% to 8%. Just goes on to show that developers should spend some time testing their web applications on Safari as well. It also tells desktop application developers that they should invest time in learning cross-platform development technologies like Java, C++ or C.
  
  
• I could not find a good statistics page showing whats going on in the Mobile Browser world at the moment. Its no secret that Opera Mini has a good market share. Webkit based browsers come built-in on most Nokia phones. iPhone's Safari browser is also Webkit based. I read that Blackberry's new mobiles will also use a Webkit based browser. If you want to target the mobile internet users' market, you should test your website using a Webkit based browser like Safari and at the same time use available emulators from Nokia, Apple etc. as the mobile versions have a cut down version of Javascript and CSS.