Report: Windows Phone 7 Surpasses BlackBerry OS in Developer Interest

Nokia's first Windows phone, the Lumia 800, just received a beyond-stellar review from Matthew Panzarino. Some choice excerpts:

[T]he Lumia 800 manages to transcend specs in a way that very few devices have been able to. It really is a great phone...It feels incredible in the hand...The design of the USB cover and Sim tray assembly is insanely delightful...The whole operation is incredibly satisfying...This device’s brilliance isn’t limited to the hardware either. Windows Phone Mango is really, really good...the scrolling and zooming experience is absolutely flawless...

Matthew goes on like this. For some time, actually. But he tempers his praise with a wistful 'so close':

Unfortunately, when I said ‘would’ in the title of this article, I meant it very literally. I would switch from the iPhone to the Lumia 800, if only it wasn’t for the apps.

The sad fact is that Windows Phone 7 will not become a major contender in the OS space until it gains massive developer support.

 
But a new survey from Appcelerator and IDC suggests that -- in part thanks to the Lumia 800 itself -- this problem might be getting smaller.

One of the biggest results from an all-around interesting survey is this:

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 also decisively moved ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry OS to become the clear number three mobile OS behind iOS and Android...The OS climbed 8 points to 38% of respondents saying they are ‘very interested’ in the platform, the highest ever for Microsoft.

Furthermore, survey respondents specifically cited the Microsoft/Nokia partnership as a major source of their increased interest:

When asked why developers are more interested in Windows Phone 7 now than a year ago, a plurality (48%) said it was the Microsoft/Nokia partnership. Nokia also received high marks from its new Lumia Windows Phone 7 smartphone announcement last month, with 28% of developers saying they are ‘very interested’ in developing for the device. This is more than double the interest in Nokia’s own Symbian and MeeGo OSes since Appcelerator began reporting mobile platform interest in January 2010.

So developer interest in Windows Phone is increasing significantly.  And if the mobile community lusts for Nokia/Windows phones half as much as Matthew Panzarino does, then the mobile race might get very interesting, very soon.

The rest of the survey covers a lot more than Nokia and Microsoft, so the results are definitely worth scanning for a few minutes.