In many ways, the mobile software industry bears a strong resemblance to the early days of home computers: competing platforms vie for the latest titles which are often created by lone hacks putting code together at night in their bedrooms. A nascent publishing industry has no idea what to charge for titles, or what to pay the authors, and whilst some people make money the majority are simply trying to understand the impact of this new world.

The home computer business eventually settled down to a couple of platforms, the lone hacks came down from their bedrooms and started wearing ties and the application publishers created strong brands, many of which are still around today. This trend is playing itself out again in the field of mobile applications.

A great deal has been written comparing the technical features of the competing mobile platforms on the market today, and about the commercial positions of the companies behind these platforms. However, as the mobile market matures, these platforms will stand or fall dependent on the software developed for them, so the factors influencing the developers' selection are key to understanding which platform might dominate.

Cost of software development, both in terms of financial expenditure and learning curve, is of paramount importance to the developer. Device compatibility is vital, so an application will not have to be written for each phone it is sold for. Support for a wide range of programming languages and development environments might be important to some developers, and all are concerned with protecting their applications through copy-protection and other anti-piracy measures; the availability of which differs widely between the platforms. A sense of the installed base of devices which support a mobile platform is also important since this will effectively act as the developer's addressable market.

This report looks at the process of developing software for the major smart phone platforms on the market today, with a view of helping developers when choosing which mobile platform to support. The platforms examined are BREW, Palm OS, Symbian Series 60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile for Smartphone. Central to this research were first-hand discussions with the mobile platform vendors, application developers, content aggregators and mobile operators. Platforms are compared from the perspective of the developer writing code, with a view to distributing that code and, hopefully, making a living out of doing so.

Selecting a platform appropriate to the application being developed is not easy, but the choices the developers make will decide which platforms come to dominate the industry.