<p>Java familiarity is key to developers being able to build apps a bit quicker for Google's Android mobile platform than for the rival Apple iOS or Microsoft's Windows Phone platforms, Evans Data said this week.</p><p>The company surveyed 464 developers worldwide as part of its semi-annual Mobile Development Survey. Forty-one percent of respondents targeting Android said a typical Android app was finished in month or less. This compared to 36 percent who said the same about iOS and 34 percent who said this about Windows Phone.</p><p>Evans attributes Android's advantage to Java development skills, which are leveraged by Android application-builders. The less-familiar Objective-C language is used for iOS applications, although this language is growing in popularity. Windows Phone applications use languages like C# and Visual Basic, which have been prominent.</p><p>"We see a lot of enterprise developers showing greater interest in Android in recent years, and I think a lot of experience they have in developing apps with Java translates easily to Android development," said Evans analyst Michael Rasalan. Android development also gets a boost from improved tooling, such as Google's Android Studio, and cross-platform development, including HTML5 use, said Rasalan.</p><p><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/application-development/java-gives-android-development-edge-234322">Keep reading...</a></p>