profile · currently, the marmalade sdk supports ios and android, windows phone 7.5 and lower,...

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Service offering evaluation and user rating

October 2013

MarmaladeProfile

©research2guidance | 2013

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CP-Tool Profile: Marmalade (by Marmalade)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Marmalade in a nutshell ................................................................................................................................. 5

2. About this profile ............................................................................................................................................ 6

3. Scope of Marmalade´s service offering .......................................................................................................... 7

3.1. Device class and platform support and feature availability ........................................................................7

3.2. Target user groups and industries ............................................................................................................10

3.3. Estimated familiarization and development time ....................................................................................12

3.4. Marmalade offered support services........................................................................................................12

4. User rating of Marmalade´s service offering ................................................................................................ 13

4.1. User profiles and usage frequency ...........................................................................................................13

4.2. Targeted industries and preferred app categories by Marmalade users .................................................14

4.3. Marmalade complexity evaluation ...........................................................................................................16

4.4. Achieved time savings ...............................................................................................................................17

4.5. User satisfaction with platform, API and HW support ..............................................................................18

4.6. User satisfaction with Marmalade’s support service ................................................................................22

4.7. User satisfaction with app quality ............................................................................................................23

4.8. Cost-performance rating of Marmalade ...................................................................................................24

5. Strengths and challenges ............................................................................................................................. 26

6. Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................... 27

6.1. Benchmarking methodology .....................................................................................................................27

6.2. About the authors .....................................................................................................................................30

6.3. List of figures and tables ...........................................................................................................................31




1. MARMALADE IN A NUTSHELL

Marmalade SDK is a Cross Platform IDE1 by Marmalade, based in London (UK). Developers of

bestseller games, like EA and Activision, work with the solution.

Claim: “The Marmalade SDK delivers maximum performance. Whether you choose to code

natively (C++), take a hybrid (HTML5-native) approach, or want to get going fast with Lua

(Marmalade Quick), with Marmalade you’ll have the option to deploy to all of the leading

mobile, tablet and desktop platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry

10, Tizen, Windows and Mac, as well as selected Smart TV and TV streaming platforms”.

USP: “Widely cross-platform, whilst at the same time offering: - High performance (compiled

C++, OpenGL ES) - Flexible (integrate any standard C/C++ code) - Open (over 100 compatible

code modules on GitHub).”

Reported number of developers: 100,000+

Reported number of apps: Thousands

Reference apps:

Pricing: License per seat using the solution

Community: US$ 150/ year

Indie: US$ 500/ year

Plus: US$ 1500/ year

Pro: US$ 3500/ year

Address: 200 St. John Street, London, EC1V 4RN, United Kingdom

1 CP IDE: Cross Platform Integrated Development environment; tools that allow multi-app/multi-platform app

development. Most tools concentrate their output on native apps, but some also create web apps. These tools use their own SDK to develop a single code faster and compile it to meet native requirements.

Cut The Rope Doodle Jump Need for Speed SHIFT




2. ABOUT THIS PROFILE

This benchmarking report provides a “360-degree view” on Marmalade. It matches the

perspective of the vendor with the experience of Marmalade users.

The benchmarking results are based on two research projects conducted between May and

August 2013.

The first project examined the features of the tools and the additional service offerings of

the vendors. research2guidance invited 90 cross-platform tool vendors, including

Marmalade, to provide company and tool information with the help of an online survey.

At the same time, users have been invited to share their experience with these tools. The

analysis asked for feedback on 16 dimensions including tool awareness, quality and

performance. The global online survey received over 1,000 responses from app developers

and publishers.

Marmalade has been one of the most rated tools. This report aggregates all information

about Marmalade into a comprehensive profile.

To allow the comparison of Marmalade with similar CP Tools, the report also contrasts the

user ratings for Marmalade with the industry benchmark.

The report aims at giving a comprehensive decision support for the selection process of a CP

Tool that includes Marmalade.




3. SCOPE OF MARMALADE´S SERVICE OFFERING

4. Marmalade is a Cross Platform IDE Tool that allows native app publishing, particularly of

games and news/ media apps.

5. The description of the service offering is structured into 4 areas: 1.

Device class and platform support and feature availability

The number of supported device classes and platforms is an indicator for the multi-

platform capability of a CP Tool. The variety of offered features determines the scope

of options when creating an app and it critically affects the app user experience.

Target user groups and industries

Some CP Tools have a focus on specific industries. Beyond an industrial focus, CP

Tools can target different user types according to company size or profession.

Estimated familiarization and development time

One of the major claims of CP Tools is that they accelerate the app creation process.

The lower the complexity of a CP Tool, the faster a new user will be able to handle

the tool and start his app project.

Offered support services

A good documentation and support can be a clear benefit of a CP Tool. CP Tools offer

different support channels. The quality of the service provided, is a key

differentiation factor.

The description of the service offerings is based on information submitted by

Marmalade.

3.1. DEVICE CLASS AND PLATFORM SUPPORT AND FEATURE AVAILABILITY

Marmalade SDK is currently optimized for targeting smartphones as well as tablets and

desktop PCs for Windows and Mac. Furthermore, Marmalade is also optimized to develop

for smart TV platforms2. Marmalade is one of the very few tools in the “Global Cross-

Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013” that offer support for Smart TVs.

Benchmark: Because of integration of Smart TVs, Marmalade offers broader device support

than CP IDEs on average.

2 Requires the purchase of an additional license




Table 1: Device class optimization of Marmalade

CP Tools aim to support various platforms. This applies not only for device classes, but also

for operating systems, mobile as well as stationary.

Currently, the Marmalade SDK supports iOS and Android, Windows Phone 7.5 and lower,

Blackberry 10, desktop and Smart TVs. In the next 12 months the additional support of

Windows (Phone) 8 and Tizen have been announced. With 7 supported platforms today and

2 additional in the near future, Marmalade offers comprehensive platform support.

Table 2: Marmalade - platform support

If a CP Tool supports a particular platform, the accessibility of specific device hardware

features and pre-installed applications is of interest. It is an indicator for the quality of the

platform support.

For iOS as well as for Android numerous device hardware features are accessible like

accelerometer, GPS, vibration, camera, multi-touch, landscape orientation, microphone,

camera and speaker. In the list of accessible hardware features as displayed below, the only

feature missing is Near Field Communication. For Windows Phone, accelerometer, multi-

touch, landscape orientation and speaker are accessible. For Blackberry 10 this list is

extended by GPS and vibration. For desktop environments camera, multi-touch, landscape

orientation, speaker and microphone (Windows) can be accessed when developing with the

Marmalade SDK.

Benchmark: Marmalade offers above average comprehensive access to device hardware

features for iOS and Android.

Device Class Optimization

Smartphones X

Tablets X

Desktop / PC X

Smart TVs X

In-car devices

Feature phones

Game consoles

Smar

t TV

s

X X X P X P X X X

Support

Planned support

mobile OSdesktop

OSother




Accessibility of pre-installed apps for iOS and Android includes contacts, filesystem IO,

calendar, image library, in-app email and SMS (Android only). For all other platforms

filesystem IO is accessible.

Benchmark: Accessibility of pre-installed applications with Marmalade is less comprehensive

than the average in the CP IDE class, particularly for platforms other than Android and iOS.

Table 3: Accessible device hardware features and pre-installed applications

Ready-made APIs allow the integration of functionalities, such as in-app advertising, in-app

purchase or social networks access, into mobile apps. The availability of ready-made APIs is a

quality indicator for platform support.

The Marmalade SDK offers integration of the most common APIs, like analytics, advertising,

mobile payment, billing and social network integration. As a CP Tool with a clear focus on

app development for consumers, Marmalade does not include access to enterprise software.

Benchmark: With 5 APIs integrated into the Marmalade SDK, it is below average across CP

IDEs (6-7 integrated APIs on average in the CP IDE class).

10

Smart

TVs

Accelerometer X X X X

GPS X X X

Vibration X X X

Camera X X X X

Multi touch/ Gesture X X X X X X

Landscape orientation X X X X X X X

Compass X X

Speaker X X X X X X X

Microfone X X X

NFC

Contacts X X

Fi lesystem IO X X X X X X X

Calendar X X

Image l ibrary X X

In-app emai l X X

Phone

SMS X

MMS

Speech recognition

Maps

Accessible device hardware features

Accessible pre-installed applications




Table 4: Integration of APIs

3.2. TARGET USER GROUPS AND INDUSTRIES

The claim that Marmalade enables the developer to create apps with very high performance,

as well as the reference apps that are “made with Marmalade” (s. a.), show that the

emphasis predominantly is on the games industry – and as stated by the vendor, the news/

info/ media industry.

Integration

VOIP

SMS

MMS

Social network access (e.g. Facebook) X

Advertising in apps (e.g. Inmobi) X

Billing (e.g. credit card or operator billing) X

Mobile payment (e.g. Paypal)/ In-app

payment/ In-app purchase X

Access to enterprise software (SAP, Oracle,

etc.)

Access to commerce platforms (e.g.

Magento)

X

mHealth monitoring

Remote monitoring: home energy

Remote monitoring: entertainment

Remote monitoring: home security

Text-to-speech transformation

Monitoring

API

Communication

Commerce

Location based services (maps, routes, traffic)

App analytics (e.g. Distimo)




Table 5: Target industries of the Marmalade

Marmalade targets professional developers of all company sizes. It requires a background in

C++3, and therefore is not suited for users without programming skills.

Benchmark: In terms of targeted company size, Marmalade is in line with the majority of the

tools researched for this report.

Table 6: Marmalade targeted company sizes and user types

3 Marmalade Quick (part of the SDK) allows to develop in Lua.

Industry Focus

General

Utilities

Games X

Retail

Hotels/ gastronomy

News/ Media X

Sports

Medical/ health

IT

Financial

Education

Automotives

Heavy Industries

Aerospace/ defense

Government

Enterprise apps

Availablitiy

Consumers

Small X

Medium X

Enterprise X

Professional developer X

Novice developers

IT/ telco administrator

Business administartor

Graphic designers

Web developers /

web publishers

Non-developers / anyone

Other targeted

professions

Targeted company size

Targeted profession

Target group




3.3. ESTIMATED FAMILIARIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT TIME

The necessary time to learn to handle a CP Tool is an indicator for its complexity. The

average app development time mainly is an indicator for the complexity of app projects that

are realized with a CP Tool.

Marmalade claims that it takes weeks to learn to handle their SDK. In comparison to other

CP Tools in the benchmarking, Marmalade is a tool with a rather high learning effort and

requires a long time to learn.

Benchmark: Marmalade is of above average complexity. App projects with Marmalade take

weeks rather than days.

Table 7: Complexity of Marmalade in terms of time-to-learn and average app development

time (vendor´s view)

3.4. MARMALADE OFFERED SUPPORT SERVICES

As for support, Marmalade offers an online community, a time-delayed online-support and

on-site support channels. Sophisticated support services are charged additionally. Support is

available in English and Japanese.

Table 8: Marmalade - available support channels

Complexity Indicator

Days

Weeks X

Months

Days

Weeks X

C++, Lua*

*Marmalade Quick

Average app development time

Required programming skills

Parameter Value

Time-to-learn

Support channel Availibility

On-site project support X

On-site training/ tutorials X

Personal phone contact

Real time online support

Time-delayed online support X

Online community X

Support available in languages:




Benchmark: Marmalade support is in line with most CP IDEs, except the fact that support

services are also available in Japanese.

4. USER RATING OF MARMALADE´S SERVICE OFFERING

The user rating is based on the results of the global online survey, with more than 1,000

participants evaluating more than 90 CP Tools. Out of the total ratings, 44 developers and

publishers have shared their experience with Marmalade.

4.1. USER PROFILES AND USAGE FREQUENCY

The user profile is an indicator for which user types a CP Tool is appropriate.

In the case of Marmalade, predominantly small businesses and single developers (89%) use

the tool. In comparison to all CP IDEs in the sample, Marmalade has the highest share of

single developers or small businesses. 69% of Marmalade users are professional developers.

Figure 1: Marmalade users by company size and position

The usage intensity of a CP Tool shows how often a developer uses a CP Tool to deliver an

app project. It is a good indicator for how the requirements of the applications can be

realized with a specific CP Tool. This applies the more with increasing number and diversity

of projects a user conducts.

Source: Global Cross Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013© research2guidance | 2013

Marmalade is primarily used by single developersMarmalade:User by company size

Just Me61%

Small business

28%

Medium business

11%

User by position in the company

Professional developer

69%

Business administrator

17%

IT / telecom administrator

6%

Other8%




On average, Marmalade users developed 12 apps in the last twelve months. Overall,

Marmalade users developed 68% of their app projects with the tool. This is a high usage

intensity compared to other CP IDEs. On average CP IDEs are used for about half of their

users´ app projects. A high share of Marmalade users (62%) specialize in the tool. They

develop more than half of their app projects with it. Marmalade also has a high share of

developers that solely develop with this tool.

Benchmark: With 54% of users developing exclusively with Marmalade, the tool is above

average in terms of user loyalty. The share of those that develop exclusively with a CP Tool is

27% across CP IDEs.

Figure 2: Marmalade users - total number of published apps and share of Marmalade apps

4.2. TARGETED INDUSTRIES AND PREFERRED APP CATEGORIES BY MARMALADE

USERS

Selecting the right CP Tool also depends on the industry and app category that the app

publisher wants to target. CP Tools sometimes offer industry or app category-specific

features like design templates or interfaces to standard software packages that are

commonly used within an industry.

The comparison for which industries app developers make use of a CP Tool is a good

indicator for the quality of the industry-specific features of a CP Tool.


62% of users specialize in developing with MarmaladeMarmalade users:Total no. of published apps in the last 12 months

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Share of apps developed with Phone Gap in the last 12 months in %

Intensity of usage

62% Specialists

38% Occsional users

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

0 1-3 4-10 11-20 21-100

# of apps developed in the last 12 months

ᴓ = 12 apps ᴓ = 68%




Marmalade users primarily develop games with the tool (83%). Only a small fraction of

Marmalade users (11% or less) targets other industries.

Figure 3: Marmalade users - industry focus when using Marmalade

Games (78%) and entertainment (22%) are by far the main targeted app categories.


Marmalade is mainly used to develop games

Marmalade:Industry focus when using Marmalade

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

INDUSTRY FOCUS




Figure 4: Marmalade users´ app category focus when using Marmalade

Hence, Marmalade SDK can be described as a CP IDE that clearly specializes in games. This

matches the vendor’s description of the tool. However, the other line of industry (new/ info

and media publishing) as stated by the vendor (see 3.2), is catered by only 3% of Marmalade

users.

Benchmark: Marmalade and Unity are the CP IDEs in the benchmarking with the strongest

focus on games. The mainly targeted app categories are games and entertainment.

4.3. MARMALADE COMPLEXITY EVALUATION

48% of Marmalade users are able to master the tool within weeks. This is in line with the

stated time-to-learn by Marmalade itself (s.a.). 24% of respondents need months, 3% need

years and 29% need just days. Marmalade is well aware of the complexity of their tool. Most

CP Tool vendors in the benchmarking, probably driven by the marketers’ spirit to emphasize

the simplicity of their solutions as a selling proposition, state that their tool can be learned

within days. This claim, for most tools in the benchmarking, mismatches the users’

experiences.

Subsequently, the complexity of Marmalade SDK was rated highest among all CP Tools in the

benchmarking: 63% of Marmalade users rated the complexity of the tool to be “high” or

“very high”.


Games and, to a lesser extent, entertainment are mainly targeted app categories

Marmalade:App category focus when using Marmalade

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

APP CATEGORY FOCUS




Benchmark: Marmalade is the CP IDE with the highest perceived complexity in the

benchmarking.

Figure 5: Complexity of Marmalade in terms of time-to-learn and average app

development time (users view); Complexity rating

4.4. ACHIEVED TIME SAVINGS

CP Tools are designed to reduce app development time for multi-platform publishing.

Against the background of the normal project length is the time saving, made possible by the

use of the CP Tool, an important indicator of the quality of the tool.

Possibly due to the high complexity of the Marmalade SDK, time-savings are realized by far

less Marmalade users compared to users of other tools in the benchmarking. 37% of

Marmalade users did not realize any time-savings with Marmalade compared to specific

native SDKs.

Benchmark: Marmalade can be found on the lower end of the benchmarking in terms of

development acceleration.

Marmalade does not emphasize rapid development as the USP of their solution, but the

performance of apps developed with their tool. However, Marmalade is able to accelerate

the development process enormously: 24% of Marmalade users realize 50%+ of time-savings

compared to individual native development.


63% of Marmalade users rate the complexity of this tool as “high“ or “very high“

Marmalade: Complexity in terms of „Familiarization time“ and „Average app development time“User rating: Complexity

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Average app development time

Familiarization time

Days Weeks Months Years

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Complexity rating

Very low / none Low Average High Very high

COMPLEXITY Poor resources, nothing but the documentation

and forums

It depends on what app you want to build. A small

app can take days, an usual app would probably

take weeks and bigger apps would take months.

Requires C++. Good if you know it, not so much if

you don't




Users that realize these high time savings target on average 6 platforms.

Two Marmalade users that realize time-savings of 50%+ state:

“Slow at first but when it comes to deploying to other platforms there is nothing quicker.”

“For deploying to iOS and Android alone, probably around 40% faster. This increases as we

choose to target more platforms.”

Figure 6: Realized time-savings in app development with Marmalade

4.5. USER SATISFACTION WITH PLATFORM, API AND HW SUPPORT

Marmalade users primarily target Blackberry 10, iOS and Android. 11% of Marmalade users

target smart TVs.

Benchmark: The satisfaction with the platform support among Marmalade users is highest

across all CP Tools in the benchmarking: 95% are satisfied with the targetable platforms.

Here are a couple of Marmalade users’ quotations:

“Supports the 4 main mobile ecosystems.”

“Top platforms supported (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows, MacOS, Blackberry,

Symbian (deprecated), Bada (deprecated)”.


37% of Marmalade users did not realize time savings

Marmalade: Realized time savings in app development

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

50%+faster

50%faster

40%faster

30%faster

20%faster

10%faster

0%faster

10%slower

20%slower

30%slower

40%slower

50%slower

50%+slower

TIME SAVINGS

SlowerFaster

High: 55%Moderate:

8%No time savings: 37%

Slow at first but it when it comes to deploying to other platforms there is

nothing quicker

Marmalade is good only if you want to go cross platform ie it is better to go

native for an iPhone-only game : faster, better quality and no problem with

iADs etc...but you save time with marmalade if you go for iOS/Win/Android game

It's more or less the same development time as native if targeting only one

platform. It's when you go multiplatform when the benefit

appears.

For deploying to iOS and Android alone, probably around 40% faster. This

increases as we chose to target more platforms.




“My only complaint is the need of an expensive license to target LG Smart TVs.”

“All four main phone platforms plus LG Smart TV and desktops in one package.”

Figure 7: Targeted platforms by Marmalade users; Satisfaction with platform support

Availability of cloud API services (e.g. operator billing, in-app advertisement, app analytics or

shop systems), accessibility of device hardware features (e.g. microphone, camera, speaker)

and pre-installed applications (e.g. calendar, address book) help to manage the app lifecycle,

ease the development process and/or allow the creation of sophisticated apps in terms of

functionalities as well as look-and-feel.

36% of Marmalade users regard availability of cloud API services as “critical”.

Benchmark: Marmalade users are in line with users of other CP Tools and they rate the

importance of cloud API services in a similar way.

30% of Marmalade users “intensely” or “often” make use of it. On average, 24% of CP Tool

users “intensely” or “often” make use of cloud API services.

Benchmark: Marmalade clients make slightly above average use of cloud API services.

On average, 49% of users across all CP IDEs are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the cloud

API services. 58% of Marmalade users are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the cloud API

services.


Marmalade users are highly satisfied with the platform support

Marmalade: Targeted OS, platform support satisfaction

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Blackberry10

Android iOs WindowsPhone

Windows(desktop)

Blackberry 7and lower

Smart TVs OS X(desktop)

TARGETED OS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Satisfaction with platform support

Satisfied Unsatisfied

Supports the 4 main mobile ecosystems.

Top platforms supported (iOS, Android, Windows Phone,

Windows, MacOS, Blackberry, Symbian (deprecated),

Bada(deprecated)

My only complaint is the need of a expensive license to target LG

Smart TVs.

All four main phone platforms plus LG Smart TB and desktops in one

package.




Benchmark: Service satisfaction with cloud API service is above average for Marmalade,

compared to other CP Tools in the benchmarking.

Figure 8: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade cloud API services

Accessibility of device hardware features is regarded by 48% as “critical” and used “often” or

“intensely”.

Benchmark: Marmalade users regard accessibility of device hardware features above

average in importance. Usage intensity of the feature as well is above average.

83% of Marmalade users are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the quality of hardware

accessibility.

Benchmark: In the benchmarking Marmalade has the highest share of users that are

“satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the quality of the accessibility of device hardware

features.


58% of Marmalade users are satisfied or very satisfied with available cloud API services

Marmalade cloud API services: Importance, usage intensity and service satisfaction

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Usage Intensity

Intensely Often Sometimes Rarely Never

CLOUD API SERVICES

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Service satisfaction

Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Unsatisfied Very unsatisfied

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Importance

Critical Nice to have Not relevant




Figure 9: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade accessible device hardware

features

Only 11% of users regard accessibility of pre-installed applications as “critical”.

Benchmark: Importance rating of access to pre-installed applications is below average in the

case of Marmalade.

Usage of accessible pre-installed applications has been “intense” or “often” by 19% of

Marmalade users.

Benchmark: According to the usage intensity of pre-installed applications, Marmalade users

are in line with most CP Tool users.

60% of Marmalade users are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service quality when

accessing pre-installed applications.

Benchmark: Service satisfaction with accessibility of pre-installed applications averages the

results of the benchmarking.


Access to device hardware features is regarded as important among most Marmalade users, service satisfaction is very high

Marmalade accessible device hardware features: Importance, usage intensity and service satisfaction

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Usage intensity


DEVICE HW FEATURES

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%


Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Unsatisfied

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Importance





Figure 10: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade accessible pre-installed

applications

4.6. USER SATISFACTION WITH MARMALADE’S SUPPORT SERVICE

Support services help to solve problems that occur during app projects. For all CP Tools, and

in particular for those of high complexity, a helping support service increases their

attractiveness. The variety of offered support channels and even more the satisfaction level

with the support services are indicators for the quality of the customer service of a CP Tool.

Marmalade users most frequently consult online community and time-delayed online

support. Satisfaction with the support service is rather low. 34% of users are not satisfied

with Marmalade’s support.

Benchmark: According to the support service satisfaction, Marmalade is on the lower end of

the benchmarking.

Marmalade users quotes:

“They were always late and had no proactive info.”

“Maybe support can be better and with less bugs.”

“Have to pay 3x licenses to get proper support. They rarely/never answer online community

posts.”


Only 11% of Marmalade users regard availability of pre-installed application as “critical“

Marmalade accessible pre-installed applications: Importance, usage intensity and service satisfaction

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Usage intensity


PRE-INSTALLED APPS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%


Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Unsatisfied

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Importance





“Poor resources, nothing but the documentation and forums.”

These results and user comments indicate that by improving the quality of their support

services, Marmalade can unlock additional market potential and increase the attractiveness

of their tool.

Figure 11: Usage of Marmalade support channels and support service satisfaction

4.7. USER SATISFACTION WITH APP QUALITY

An important indicator for the performance of the different CP Tools is the quality of the

apps that have been developed with the help of a CP Tool. The quality of an app depends on

the graphical standard, the usability, the performance, the revenue potential and how

secure the app is against threats from viruses, data theft etc.

For three out of the five reviewed characteristics, Marmalade apps are among the top three

best rated. The claim “The Marmalade SDK delivers maximum performance” bears

comparison with the user reviews. 88% of Marmalade users do not see the performance of

their apps as having a lower quality than native apps. “Scope of design” and “usability” are

rated less high for Marmalade apps; Marmalade averages the benchmarking results for

these two characteristics.


Marmalade user are below average satisfied with the quality of Marmalade support

Marmalade support:Usage and service satisfaction

SUPPORT

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Online community Time-delayed onlinesupport

On-site project support On-site training /tutorials

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%


Very good Good Sufficient Bad Very bad

they are doing a great job in support depends on price they get but there is still

some lack of support ,because of vast majority of unsupported tool by

marmalade itself , buy they are being used too much

they always late and no proactive info

maybe support can be better and less bugs

Have to pay 3x license to get proper support. They rarely/never answer online

community posts.




Benchmark: In terms of performance, marmalade sets the benchmark. Marmalade apps

have been rated of highest performance across all CP Tools.

Figure 12: Marmalade app quality rating

Marmalade user quote:

“It's not possible for an external SDK to improve performance vs. native SDK; however we use

Marmalade because it compares very well in terms of performance next to other x-platform

tools incl. Unity, etc.”

4.8. COST-PERFORMANCE RATING OF MARMALADE

Cost-performance ratio is an overall indicator of how efficient app developers rate the CP

Tool-supported development and publishing process of an app.

Even though licenses for the tool start at US$ 150 / year and there is no free trial or license

for privates, the cost-performance ratio has been rated the highest in the benchmarking:

81% of users rate it “okay” or even ”good value” whilst no users rate it below average.

Benchmark: Even though cost-performance of CP Tools overall has been rated positive,

Marmalade users are satisfied above average with the cost-performance ratio of their tool.


88% of users rate performance of Marmalade apps as native-like

Marmalade app quality rating vs. native apps

-40% -20% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Design

Usability

Performance

Security

Generated app revenues

Same or higher Lower Much lower

APP QUALITY

It's not possible for an external SDK to improve performance vs.

native SDK; however we use Marmalade because it compares

very well in terms of performance next to other x-platform tools incl.

Unity, etc.




Figure 13: Marmalade - cost-performance ratio (user rating)


Marmalade users are satisfied with the cost-performance ratio of the tool

Marmalade: User rating of cost-performance ratio

Good value56%

Okay25%

Average19%

COST-PERFORMANCE RATIO




5. STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES

User rating unveils strengths and weaknesses of Marmalade SDK:

Strengths:

Very high user satisfaction with cost-performance ratio

High user loyalty

Supports all four main mobile OS, Windows (desktop) and Mac as well as smart TVs

Very high satisfaction with quality of platform support

Very high satisfaction with access to device hardware features

High satisfaction with cloud API services

High app quality, particularly very high performance

High potential to save development time

Support services also available in Japanese

Challenges:

Spare accessibility of pre-installed applications, particularly for other platforms than

Android and iOS

High complexity

High share of users that don’t realize time savings

Low satisfaction with quality of support services

Marmalade is a sophisticated CP Tool focussing on games that offers a broad range of

supported platforms and features. Users appreciate the quality and performance of apps

that can be developed with Marmalade. Loyalty is highest among all tools.

On the other hand, the tool is complex and developers don’t always get the help needed

from the support they are expecting for such a powerful tool. This can be one of the reasons

why developers don’t always realize time savings for their app project.

Developers should consider using Marmalade for games publishing only if they have the

necessary developing skills (C++) in the team.




6. APPENDIX

6.1. BENCHMARKING METHODOLOGY

The profile is an excerpt of the global cross platform app development tool benchmarking.

This benchmarking of cross-platform development tools is based on two research projects

conducted between May and August 2013.

The vendor analysis examines the tool features, USPs4 of the solutions, penetration and the

service offering of the vendors. Research2guidance invited 90 cross-platform tool vendors to

provide company and tool information with the help of an online survey. More than 50% of

invited vendors participated, making it the largest cross-platform tool survey to date. Survey

results have been enriched with expert interviews and secondary research.

Figure 14: Benchmarking methodology

User awareness and performance rating is based on a global app developer and publisher

online survey. The online survey received over 1,000 responses.

4 USP: Unique Selling Proposition


The benchmarking matches the tool vendors viewwith the reality of the users

Vendor survey

User survey

Benchmarking

• 45 tools vendors have participated

• Vendors filled out questionaires about their solution

• 1,021 app developers have participated

• Developers answered surveyabout their experience withcross platform tools

• Matching vendor and tool user perspectives

• Tool comparison

1

2

3

Benchmarking process




Tool vendor offerings and user ratings are matched in the benchmarking, indicating gaps

between vendors and user perception of today’s leading cross-platform app development

tools.

Cross-platform tool users are located in regions around the world. Participants come mainly

from the US (15%), Canada (11%), India (11%), Germany (10%) and UK (6%).

Figure 15: Geographical overview of cross-platform tool users

Tool user survey participants range from individual app developers to IT managers of multi-

national corporations.


Geographical distribution of participating developers

Tool users are spread around the globe




Figure 16: Background of cross-platform tool users


The cross-platform rating audience ranges from individual developers to IT managers of multi-national corporations

User survey participants by company size

Just me33%

Small business

41%

Medium business

13%

Enterprise13%

n=888

User survey participants by position in thecompany

Professional developer

58%

Business administrator

/ CXO / Management

21%

IT / telecom administrator

5%

Graphic designer

2%

Student / Learning

developer2%

Other12%




6.2. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

The authors of this report have been following the app market and CP Tools for many years. The first report on

multi-platform app publishing tools was published in 2010. Since then, two other reports which cover the

market for CP Tools have been published.

OUR ANALYST TEAM

Ralf-Gordon Jahns

Ralf is the research director of

research2guidance. He has worked for more

than 19 years in the telecom and media

industry. Prior to research2guidance he worked

as a partner for Capgemini Telecom Media &

Networks. Ralf is a frequent keynote speaker on

mobile industry events, publisher of a multitude

of mobile market reports and executive

consultant of more than 30 clients in the

telecom and media industry.

Joachim Thiele-Schlesier

Joachim is a research analyst at

research2guidance. He is monitoring the CP Tool

market since 2011 and has been responsible for

publishing 3 reports on this topic. Joachim also

engaged with projects on converging

telecommunication networks and regulatory

issues. He holds a degree in economics and

specializes on infrastructure and network

economics. Prior to research2guidance he worked

for Markedskraft ASA as analyst and for the

Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication

Systems and Center for Network Industries.




6.3. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1: Device class optimization of Marmalade .................................................................................................. 8

Table 2: Marmalade - platform support.................................................................................................................. 8

Table 3: Accessible device hardware features and pre-installed applications ........................................................ 9

Table 4: Integration of APIs ................................................................................................................................... 10

Table 5: Target industries of the Marmalade ........................................................................................................ 11

Table 6: Marmalade targeted company sizes and user types ............................................................................... 11

Table 7: Complexity of Marmalade in terms of time-to-learn and average app development time (vendor´s

view) ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Table 8: Marmalade - available support channels ................................................................................................ 12

Figure 1: Marmalade users by company size and position ................................................................................... 13

Figure 2: Marmalade users - total number of published apps and share of Marmalade apps ............................. 14

Figure 3: Marmalade users - industry focus when using Marmalade ................................................................... 15

Figure 4: Marmalade users´ app category focus when using Marmalade ............................................................ 16

Figure 5: Complexity of Marmalade in terms of time-to-learn and average app development time (users view);

Complexity rating .................................................................................................................................................. 17

Figure 6: Realized time-savings in app development with Marmalade ................................................................ 18

Figure 7: Targeted platforms by Marmalade users; Satisfaction with platform support ...................................... 19

Figure 8: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade cloud API services .............................................. 20

Figure 9: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade accessible device hardware features ................ 21

Figure 10: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Marmalade accessible pre-installed applications ............... 22

Figure 11: Usage of Marmalade support channels and support service satisfaction ........................................... 23

Figure 12: Marmalade app quality rating .............................................................................................................. 24

Figure 13: Marmalade - cost-performance ratio (user rating) .............................................................................. 25

Figure 14: Benchmarking methodology ................................................................................................................ 27

Figure 15: Geographical overview of cross-platform tool users ........................................................................... 28

Figure 16: Background of cross-platform tool users ............................................................................................. 29

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