Joining a smartphone ecosystem: Application developers' motivations and decision criteria

This paper complements prior research with the viewpoint of the developers themselves, focusing on how they perceive both technical and economic, as well as governance related aspects. In addition, most research so far has focused on one aspect only, mostly application markets, while this study assess the perception of the whole ecosystem, including end user device, markets and OS. It is concluded that the motivations and perceptions of developers comprise a major component in the creation and management of a large and diverse ecosystem, and that there exists a significant group of user innovators, who are not motivated by financial gain. There are several other aspects besides network size that drive the choice of platform. In addition, developers perceive hardware, software, marketplaces and other aspects as one single construct. Any platform owner therefore has to carefully consider and manage their expectations and perceptions.