Mobile Developer News Roundup for Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Iconoclast Labs pits PhoneGap against RubyMotion! They came up with an idea for a “magic 8-ball on steroids” app that provides its user with conversation starters and makes use of features such as databases, networking and so on. Then they implemented it twice; once with PhoneGap, once with RubyMotion. The winner? Well, it depends.

Ah, Windows Phone, the platform I used to evangelize. I really should see about getting my Samsung Focus replaced (Anthony Bartolo, can you help a brother out?).

There’s news aplenty for Windows Phone and WinRT developers:

• Do you need Metro-style icons? SyncFusion’s got 600 of them, royalty-free and usable in commercial apps.
• Telerik’s RadControls for Windows 8: It looks as though control-maker Telerik is first to the gate again for controls for a new OS. They’ll be premiering them at TechEd ’12 in Orlando, which takes place June 11th through 14th.
• The Seven Deadly Sins for Windows Phone Developers. An ongoing series in Dzone on what not to do when writing apps.
• Some useful blog entries from Matt Lacey:
• The 256MB device difference that isn’t documented: The 7.1.1 update lets you detect devices with only 256MB RAM, and they support graphics at a maximum of 16 bits per pixel, while devices with more RAM support 32.
• Four ways to make money with Windows Phone: Listed in order of likelihood of success, starting with the most likely, it’s get paid to build apps for other people, build apps that let you monetize another service, build a targeted app and promote it appropriately and get lucky.
• 13 ways to improve the performance of your app. MVVM purists may freak out at some of the suggestions, but Matt says they’ve worked for him. Experience trumps theory in this case!
• New tablets!
• Lenovo’s new ThinkPad tablet. No model name or number just yet, but it’s a taste of what they’ll be releasing soon.
• AMD’s Compal Windows 8 hybrid tablet. AMD’s response to Intel’s vision for Windows 8.

Android app development and revenue are growing, says StartApp. 450,000 apps on Google Play with potentially thousands more from other places on 300 million Android devices with 850,000 being added every day.

IDC says that Android shipments will peak this year as mobile shipments slow, but they also predicted that Windows Phone will have at least 20% market share by 2015. An appropriately-sized grain of salt is recommended.