iPhone most popular dev platform in UK - Report

Sixty-one percent of UK developers are making games for Apple's iPhone, according to a report by the UK games industry trade association TIGA. The iPhone is now the most popular development platform in the UK, closely followed by the PC with 59 percent of developers making games for it. The findings will be a blow to Nintendo and Sony, whose DS and PSP platforms command a smaller percentage of UK development--despite having been on the market much longer--at 29 and 36 percent respectively.

The findings come as part of a report from UK games industry trade body TIGA, which surveyed its 170 members. The report also found that in its two short years on the market, the iPad commands a following of 48 percent of UK developers. Though no separate figures were given for Android devices, a combined figure of 34 percent of developers make games for non-Apple mobiles and PDAs.

Since its launch in 2007, the iPhone has risen in popularity as a gaming device, along with the iPod Touch and the iPad. At an Apple press conference on Tuesday, the company revealed that it has sold more than 250 million iOS devices, also proclaiming that the iPod Touch is the number one handheld gaming platform in the world.

Recent findings from mobile analytics firm Distimo found that games represent the largest single app category on Apple App Store, accounting for half of the downloads of both free and paid apps. It also discovered that more than five million games a day were downloaded in the US and six European territories during March 2011, with users downloading an average of 2.5 games per month.