Mobile Development IDEs: Ease of installation, ease of use and current popularity

Ease of Installation
To the beginner Xcode appears unwieldy enough but the fact that you can download a copy through the Mac App Store makes the starting to get to know process less painful. The Windows 8 IDE might not be quite this simple, but it is easy enough for anyone used to downloading and installing software (a link can be found here). When it comes to Android there are a few more hoops to jump through, all of which are listed here, and involve downloading the SDK and Eclipse, installing both and hooking them up together. Finally, there is the Blackberry 10 SDK, which from the website gives the impression of being a breeze, but is a bit of a head-scratcher when making the right choices and you'll need Virtual Machine software too unless you install the Visual Studio plug-in instead of the self-contained Eclipse-like IDE (which for some reason is launched from a Terminal command on OS X).

1. Xcode (iOS) and Windows Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Windows 8
3. Andoid SDK (Eclipse)
4. Blackberry 10 SDK

Ease of use
It is stating the obvious that you'll find easiest to use the IDE with the language you are most used to coding in. But this ease of use list is based on how quickly you can get an empty app up and running, and how intuitive it is to start finding where each area of your app is located.

1. Xcode (iOS) and Windows Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Windows 8
3. Andoid SDK (Eclipse)
4. Blackberry 10 SDK

Current popularity
As it stands iOS and Android are near level globally in terms of the number of apps and number of downloads, as well as the number of devices out in the world. And if you are looking to reach the largest user-base these will be your first port of call. Positions 3 and 4 are more of an informed prediction.

1. Xcode (iOS) and Andoid SDK (Eclipse)
3. Windows Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Windows 8
4. Blackberry 10 SDK

For guides on how to get started with Xcode, see here and for Android see here and here. I hope to post some Windows 8 and BlackBerry 10 information at some point in the future.


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