While the Apple iPhone remains the undisputed king of mobile app downloads, Android has been winning converts among open source developers since its inception. Now, Android has made enough of a splash that it can claim more open source developers than the iPhone, according to new research by Black Duck Software. Of course, that takes into account more than just mobile apps, with libraries and other bits of software being counted. But the findings suggest that while the iPhone continues to reign in the overall number of downloadable applications, the Google-backed mobile OS may be winning fans thanks to its more open nature. Developer.com takes a look.
Mobile platforms like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android have become a key focus for open source developers. And the trend is only increasing, though new research has found that over the course of the last year, there has been a shift in which mobile platform has the most open source development activity.
A new study by Black Duck Software found that at the end of 2009, there were 224 new open source software projects on Google’s Android operating system, bringing its total to 357 open source projects in all. That’s enough to leapfrog Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone to take the top spot in the number of open source projects being developed on either platform.
