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Corona SDK (by Corona Labs)

October 2013

Corona SDK Profile

©research2guidance | October 2013

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CP-Tool Profile: Corona SDK (by Corona Labs)

About research2guidance

research2guidance is a strategy advisor and market research company. We concentrate on

the mobile app eco-system. Our service offerings include:

App Strategy: We help our clients in and outside of the mobile industry to develop their app

market strategy. Our consulting advisory projects are based on a set of predefined project

approaches including: App strategy development, App Evaluation, App Market Segment

Sizing, App Governance and App Marketing Spend Effectiveness.

App Market Reports: Our app market reports explore the major trends and developments

affecting the app markets. Separate research papers provide both general and specific

coverage of the market. The reports contain key insights for companies looking to enter or

deepen their engagement with the mobile applications market, providing data and analysis

on all relevant aspects of the market to ease investment decision-making.

App Market Surveys: We leverage our 70.000 app eco-system database to conduct surveys

and reports for our clients.

research2guidance UG

Berlin, Germany

+49 (0)30 609 89 33 60

www.research2guidance.com


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Related products and services:

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Need help with finding the right Cross-Platform Tool ? Use our standardized CP Tool

selection process to find the right tool for your app projects.

Contact the analyst Joachim Thiele-Schlesier: +49 (0) 30 609 89 33 60,

[email protected]

Cross-Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013: “The hidden champions of the app economy”

Detailed Cross-Platform Tool Benchmarking 2013: “A comparison of 10 leading tools for multi-platform app development”

Marmalade Profile: “Service offering and user rating”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Corona SDK (by Corona Labs) in a nutshell .................................................................................................... 5

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

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

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

3.2. Target user groups and industries ............................................................................................................11

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

3.4. Corona offered support services...............................................................................................................13

4. User rating of Corona service offering ......................................................................................................... 14

4.1. User profiles and usage frequency ...........................................................................................................14

4.2. Targeted industries and preferred app categories by Corona SDK users .................................................15

4.3. Corona SDK complexity evaluation ...........................................................................................................17

4.4. Achieved time savings ...............................................................................................................................18

4.5. User satisfaction with platform, API and HW support ..............................................................................19

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

4.7. User satisfaction with App quality ............................................................................................................23

4.8. Cost-performance rating of Corona SDK ...................................................................................................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


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1. CORONA SDK (BY CORONA LABS) IN A NUTSHELL

Corona SDK is a Cross Platform IDE Tool1 (CP IDE) by Corona Labs, a US based company.

Apart from Corona SDK, the company also launched an enterprise version called Corona

Enterprise.

Claim: “The ultimate 2D development platform for iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook. Corona

dramatically boosts your productivity. Thanks to our elegant APIs, tasks like animating

objects, creating UI widgets or enabling physics take only a few lines of code. And in Corona

you develop using Lua, a scripting language that is very easy to learn.

Changes are instantly viewable in the Corona Simulator and building to your own mobile

device is a breeze.”

USP: “With Corona SDK, developers can build high quality apps and games 10 times faster

than with other platforms.”

Reported number of developers: 250,000

Reported number of apps: 27,000

Reference apps:

Pricing: License per seat using the solution

Starter: Free

Pro: US$ 50 / month

Enterprise: US$ 80-200 / month

Address: Corona Labs Inc., 1900 Embarcadero Rd., Suite 207, Palo Alto, CA 94303

1 CP IDE: 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.

ThroneWars Little Generals Fun Run


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2. ABOUT THIS PROFILE

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

perspective of the vendor with the experience of Corona SDK 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 Corona

SDK, 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.

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

about Corona SDK into a comprehensive profile.

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

user ratings for Corona SDK with the industry benchmark.

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

Tool that includes Corona SDK.


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3. SCOPE OF CORONA´S SERVICE OFFERING

Corona SDK is a Cross Platform IDE Tool that allows app publishing on a large range of native

mobile app platforms.

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

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 key differentiation

factor.

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

3.1. DEVICE CLASS AND PLATFORM SUPPORT AND FEATURE AVAILABILITY

Corona SDK is currently optimized for targeting smartphones as well as tablets. Optimization

for desktops (PC and Mac) is currently in progress at Corona Labs and is announced to be

part of the SDK in 2014. An integration of smart TVs, in-car devices or game consoles is not

scheduled yet.

Benchmark: Corona´s device coverage is more focused than average among CP Tools in the

IDE2 class.

2 IDE: Integrated Development Environment, see Cross Platform App Development Benchmarking Report for a detailed

description of CP Tool categories


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Table 1: Device-class optimization of Corona SDK

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, Corona SDK supports only iOS and Android, Kindle and Nook. For the next 12

months the additional support of Windows Phone, Blackberry 10 and Tizen, Desktop

(Windows and Mac) as well as HTML5 (targeting mobile) have been announced.

Benchmark: Current platform support by Corona is below average.

Table 2: Corona SDK - 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.

In the case of Corona, for iOS as well as for Android, numerous device hardware features are

accessible: accelerometer, GPS, vibration, camera, multi-touch, landscape orientation,

microphone, camera, speaker, etc. In the list of accessible hardware features, as displayed

below, the only feature missing is Near Field Communication.

Accessibility of pre-installed apps with Corona SDK is broad. Out of the total feature list

below, almost every OEM pre-installed app can be accessed. Only speech recognition is not

accessible with Corona.

Benchmark: Breadth of access to hardware features with Corona is above average within CP

Tool class.

Device Class Optimization

Smartphones X

Tablets X

Desktop / PC

Smart TVs

In-car Devices

Feature Phones

Game Consoles

Smar

t TV

s

X X P P P P P P P

SupportedPlanned support

mobile OSdesktop

OSother


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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.

Corona SDK offers integration of the most common APIs, like analytics, advertising, mobile

payment and advertisement. Corona SDK has APIs integrated to access the most common

enterprise software. APIs for monitoring are not included in Corona SDK.

Benchmark: Corona’s API coverage is average within CP Tool class.

Accessible device hardware features

Accelerometer X X

GPS X X

Vibration X X

Camera X X

Multi touch/ Gesture X X

Landscape orientation X X

Compass X X

Speaker X X

Microfone X X

NFC

Accessible pre-installed applications

Contacts X X

Fi lesystem IO X X

Calendar X X

Image l ibrary X X

In-app emai l X X

Phone X X

SMS X X

MMS X X

Speech recognition

Maps X X


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Table 4: Integration of APIs

Integration

VOIP

SMS

MMS X

Social network access (e.g. Facebook) X

Advertising in apps (e.g. Inmobi) X

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

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

payment/ In-app purchase X

Access to enterprise software (SAP, Oracle,

etc.) X

Access to commerce platforms (e.g.

Magento)

X

X

mHealth monitoring

Remote monitoring: home energy

Remote monitoring: entertainment

Remote monitoring: home security

Monitoring

API

Communication

Commerce

Location based services (maps, routes, traffic)

App analytics (e.g. Distimo)

Text-to-speech transformation


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3.2. TARGET USER GROUPS AND INDUSTRIES

By intention of Corona Labs, the tool focuses on Games, Utilities as well as News/ Info/

Media.

Table 5: Target industries of Corona SDK

Corona SDK targets developers (seasoned as well as beginners) and graphic designers of any

company size. The tool requires Lua, which is easier to learn than for instance C++. It does

not target non-programmers. Due to Corona’s platform support (iOS, Android, Kindle, Nook)

the solution is also not the tool of choice for web-developers and publishers. This might

change once Corona Labs has included the support of HTML5 (planned).

Benchmark: Corona is one of the few CP IDEs which target novice developers as well as

consumers.

Industry Focus

General

Utilities X

Games X

Retail

Hotels/ gastronomy

News/ Media X

Sports

Medical/ health

IT

Financial

Education

Automotives

Heavy Industries

Aerospace/ defense

Government

Enterprise apps


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Table 6: Corona SDK targeted company sizes and user types

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.

Corona Labs claims that it takes just days to learn their SDK and to create an average-sized

app. To work with Corona SDK it is necessary to have a background in Lua. Even though Lua

has the reputation of being relatively easy to learn, in reality developers need more time to

get used to working with Corona than claimed by the vendors themselves. Corona users also

state that they need significantly more time than a couple of days to develop their apps,

which might be due to the complexity of the apps (see 4.3).

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

time (vendor´s view)

Target Group Availablitiy

Consumers X

Small X

Medium X

Enterprise X

Professional Developer X

Novice Developers X

IT/ Telco Administrator

Business Administartor / CXO /

Management

Graphic Designers X

Web Developers /

Web Publishers

Non-Developers / Anyone

Targeted Company Size

Targeted Profession

Complexity Indicator

Days X

Weeks

Months

Days X

Weeks

Required Programming Skills Lua

Parameter Value

Time-to-learn

Average App Development Time


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3.4. CORONA OFFERED SUPPORT SERVICES

Corona support service channels are on-site training, online support and online community.

Personnel support services are additionally charged (from US$ 750 / 5 hours to US$ 1,125 / 5

hours). Support is available in English only.

Table 8: Corona SDK - available support channels

Benchmark: Corona support is in line with support service offerings of CP IDEs.

Supportchannel AvailibilityOn-site project support

On-site training/ tutorials XPersonal phone contact

Real time online support X

Time-delayed online support XOnline community XSupport available in languages:


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4. USER RATING OF CORONA 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, 23 developers and

publishers have shared their experience with Corona SDK.

4.1. USER PROFILES AND USAGE FREQUENCY

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

Corona SDK is mostly used by small businesses (65%) and single developers (15%).

Benchmark: Corona is used above average by small businesses (29% of CP IDE users are

small businesses) and below average in the target group of single developers (55% of CP IDE

users are single developers).

Figure 1: Corona 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.

On average, Corona users developed 10 apps in the last twelve months.

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

65% of Corona SDK users are small businessesCorona SDK:User by company size

Just Me15%

Small business

65%

Medium business

15%

Enterprise5%

User by position in the company

Professional developer

65%

Business administrator/ Management/

CXO35%


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Benchmark: Output quantity of apps of Corona is below average for CP IDEs (across all CP

IDEs average is 13-14 apps).

Overall, Corona users developed 49% of their app projects with Corona SDK. 44% of Corona

users are occasional users, 56% are specialists.

Benchmark: Tool usage of Corona is in line with how often users from other CP IDEs make

use of the CP Tool to develop an app.

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

4.2. TARGETED INDUSTRIES AND PREFERRED APP CATEGORIES BY CORONA SDK USERS

Selecting the right CP Tool also depends on the industry and app category 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 developer make use of a CP Tool is a good indicator

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

Corona users primarily develop games (56%), but also Utilities (17%) and News/ Info/ Media

(11%). This is in line with Corona’s industry focus.


49% of Corona users are occasional usersCorona SDK users:Total no. of published apps in the last 12 months

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

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

56% Specialists

44% Occsional users

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1-3 4-10 11-20 21-100 101+

# of apps developed in the last 12 months

ᴓ = 10 apps ᴓ = 49%

no tutorial on business apps

It's difficult to create business app...very

difficult


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Figure 3: Corona SDK users - industry focus when using Corona

In terms of app categories, Corona users focus primarily on games, education and

entertainment apps.

Figure 4: Corona SDK users´ app category focus when using Corona


Corona SDK is primarily used to develop games, but is also used to develop apps with a focus on utilities or without industry focus

Industry focus when using Corona SDK

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Games Noindustrial

focus

Utilities Retail News / Info/ Media

publishers

Food /Beverage

Healthcare/ Pharma

INDUSTRY FOCUS


Games, Education and Entertainment are the mainly targeted app categories when developing with Corona SDK

App category focus when using Corona SDK

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

APP CATEGORY FOCUS


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Hence, Corona SDK can be described as a CP IDE with a focus on games.

Benchmark: Corana SDK is more focused on games than the majority of CP Tools, but it is

also not as specialized in games as tools like Unity 3D or Marmalade.

4.3. CORONA SDK COMPLEXITY EVALUATION

Only 14% of Corona users have been able to master the tool within days, which is the

average time-to-learn according to Corona (see previous chapter).

For 24% of respondents it took them at least months to learn to handle the tool.

Benchmark: Corona familiarization time is slightly longer than average across all CP IDEs.

The average app project time estimated by the users is much longer than what Corona

claims. More than 30% of the app projects take months rather than weeks or days. Corona is

not an exception. All vendors communicate shorter learning and app development times.

Nevertheless, the overall complexity of Corona SDK was rated average or low by 90% of

respondents.

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

development time (users view); complexity rating


90% of Corona users rate the complexity of the tool low or average

Corona SDK: 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

Windows Phone needs to be in the works.


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Benchmark: The complexity of Corona SDK, as perceived by users, is lower than average for

CP IDEs.

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 tools.

Corona Labs claims that with their SDK, users will save 90% of development time. That is a

bold statement but it is supported by the results of the benchmarking study. Corona’s users

do realize significant time savings.

86% of users are able to save 30%+ of development time, 57% of participants even save

50%+ time.

This indicates that once users have learned to master the Corona SDK, it enables them to

develop apps in a much shorter period of time.

Figure 6: Realized time-savings in app development with Corona SDK

Benchmark: Time savings with Corona are above average. They are similar to those that

have been achieved with Xamarin and Unity 3D.


Although Corona takes quite long to learn to handle, it enables users to accelerate development process

Corona SDK: Realized time savings in app development

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

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: 86% Moderate: 0% No time savings: 14%


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4.5. USER SATISFACTION WITH PLATFORM, API AND HW SUPPORT

Besides iOS and Android, Corona SDK currently only supports Nook and Kindle. With four

platforms (and only two of the major OS), Corona offers a limited platform support. CP IDEs

support 7 platforms on average and 3.6 platforms out of the major OS (iOS, Android,

Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Blackberry 7.x and 10).

81% of Corona users are satisfied with their platform support.

A Corona SDK user says: “Windows Phone needs to be in the works.”

Corona Labs seem to be aware of this deficit of their SDK. Until mid 2014 a comprehensive

expansion of platform support, including Windows Phone, Blackberry 10 and Tizen, is

planned.

Benchmark: The satisfaction level of Corona’s platform coverage is below average in the

benchmarking. The highest satisfaction levels have been reached by Marmalade (95%) and

Unity 3D (94% of satisfied users).

Figure 7: Targeted platforms by Corona 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.


User satisfaction with platform support is below average

Corona SDK: Targeted OS, platform support satisfaction

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Android iOs

TARGETED OS

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

Satisfaction with platform support

Satisfied Unsatisfied


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Access to API services is critical for 50% of Corona users. Only 15% see access to e.g. SMS or

billing solutions as not relevant for the app projects.

Benchmark: Corona user rating of API access importance is above average across users of CP

Tools.

The majority of Corona developers at least sometimes implement API features into their

apps. 32% intensely or often make use of them.

Benchmark: Corona usage intensity of API access is above average across users of CP Tools.

Almost 40% of Corona’s developers are satisfied with the API support Corona SDK offers.

Benchmark: The overall user satisfaction for API access is slightly below average across users

of CP Tools.

Corona Labs used to offer additional cloud services in a service business model (BaaS). The

product was named Corona Cloud. Corona stopped this service recently, in August 2013, due

to execution problems.

“Corona Cloud in its current form has been a disappointment. While there were islands of

potential, the ultimate execution of the product did not meet our standards.” (Corona Labs,

June 2013).

Figure 7: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Corona cloud API services


Corona users rate importance of clous API service high, but are below average satisfied with the service quality

Corona SDK 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


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Accessible device hardware features are close to the developers´ hearts: about two out of

three users regard this feature as “critical”. In contrast, no user rates accessibility of device

hardware features as “not relevant”.

Almost 60% of users are satisfied with the service and use it often or frequently.

Benchmark: Across all CP IDE, the access to device hardware features is regarded by 60% of

respondents as “critical” and by 7% as “not relevant”.

Benchmark: Corona’s user satisfaction with the quality of this service is average compared

to the other observed CP Tools. Marmalade has the highest satisfaction with accessible

device hardware features among users (33% of users are “very satisfied” and 50% are

“satisfied”).

Figure 1: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Corona accessible device hardware

features

Access to pre-installed applications like calendar or contacts across mobile platforms is a

feature that 47% of Corona users rate as “critical”.

Benchmark: Importance rating of access to pre-installed apps is in line with the average.

Titanium users rate accessibility of pre-installed applications of highest importance (77% find

the service of “critical” importance).

On the other hand, only a fraction (5%) integrates those apps into their applications

frequently. It is one of the features that has to be there even though it is not used often.

Benchmark: The usage intensity of this service amongst Corona users is below average.


Corona SDK users rate access to device hardware features above avarage as important

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

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

Usage intensity

Intensely Often Sometimes Rarely Never

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

Critical Nice to have


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Overall, more than 40% of Corona developers are happy with the capabilities the tool offers.

Benchmark: The satisfaction with this service is in line with the average of other CP IDE

Tools.

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

applications

4.6. USER SATISFACTION WITH CORONA’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.

Online community support is the most frequently used support channel by Corona

developers. 78% of users consult this channel to get help. 28% use on-site training and email

support (22%). Real-time online support is used by only a minority (6%).

The overall quality of the support services Corona offers is rated “good” or “very good” by

more than 50% of the developers.


Usage intensity of accessible pre-installed apps when developing with Corona is below average

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

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

Usage intensity

Often Sometimes Rarely Never

PRE-INSTALLED APPS

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


Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral

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

Importance

Critical Nice to have Not relevant


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Benchmark: Satisfaction with the service quality is slightly below average compared to other

examined CP Tools.

Figure 11: Usage of Corona 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.

Most Corona developers rate app quality the same or even better than native apps. App

quality is measured in: app revenue potential, security, performance, usability and design.

App revenue potential is rated the same or higher compared to natively developed apps by

more than 80% of the users.

The performance of Corona apps has been rated by 50% of users as native-like.

75% of Corona users rate the usability of their apps as native-like.

67% of Corona users rate the security as native-like or even better.

65% of Corona users rate design quality of their apps the same or better than native apps.


User satisfaction with Corona support services is slightly below average compared to other observed CP Tools

Corona SDK support: Usage and service satisfaction

SUPPORT

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Online community On-site training /tutorials

Time-delayed onlinesupport

Real-time online support

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


Very good Good Average Bad


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Being able to generate more money by using Corona for app publishing is the major quality

factor for Corona developers. Corona (but also other CP Tools) supports revenue generation

mainly by allowing higher download numbers through multi-platform publishing or other

features like easy access to in-app purchase or in-app advertisement APIs.

Benchmark: The quality of Corona apps is rated average compared with other CP IDEs.

Figure 12: Corona app quality rating

4.8. COST-PERFORMANCE RATING OF CORONA SDK

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

Tool-supported development and publishing process of an app.

To use Corona SDK, a developer has to purchase a license per seat. Additional support

services are charged. Corona Labs offer three tiers of pricing for their SDK (see above). The

lowest tier allows free development and publishing.

A Corona Labs representative explains: “Corona SDK Starter is completely free to publish any

number of apps on all platforms.”

These pricing tiers meet the demands of Corona customers. 84% of Corona users rate the

cost-performance ratio of Corona SDK as “Okay” or even “Good Value”.

Benchmark: The rating of Corona SDK cost-performance ratio averages the rating results of

all CP IDEs in the benchmarking, which in general is very positive.


Beside performance, scope of graphic design is the major weakness of Corona apps

Corona SDK app quality rating vs. native apps

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

Design

Usability

Performance

Security

Generated app revenues

Same or higher Lower Much lower

APP QUALITY


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Figure 12: Corona SDK - cost-performance ratio (user rating)


Overall Corona SDK users are satisfied with the cost-performance ration of the tool

Corona SDK: User rating of cost-performance ratio

Good value47%Okay

37%

Average11%

Costly5%

COST-PERFORMANCE RATIO


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5. STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES

User rating unveils strengths and challenges of Corona SDK:

Strengths:

Low complexity

Above average feature richness for the supported platforms

Very high time savings

Targets also novice developers and consumers

Free Starter license

Extension of platform support is announced

Challenges:

Currently supports only iOS and Android

Quality of cloud API services below average

Below average satisfaction with quality of support services

Corona SDK is a tool for game developers that also want to develop for other app categories.

The tools support concentrates today on iOS and Android. It allows far above average rapid

app development, only beaten by Unity 3D. The tool is not complex and targets also

developers with little app development experience.

It is a good choice for no “high end” apps and allows an easy start with low capability

experience and a free Starter license.


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6. APPENDIX

6.1. BENCHMARKING METHODOLOGY

The Corona profile is an excerpt from 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, USPs3 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 13: 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.

3 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


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Tool vendor offerings and user ratings are compared 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 all over the globe. Participants come mainly from the

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

Figure 14: 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


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Figure 15: 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%


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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

engages 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 an analyst and for the

Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication

Systems and Center for Network Industries.


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6.3. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1: Device-class optimization of Corona SDK .................................................................................................. 8

Table 2: Corona SDK - 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 Corona SDK .............................................................................................................. 11

Table 6: Corona SDK targeted company sizes and user types .............................................................................. 12

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

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

Table 8: Corona SDK - available support channels ................................................................................................ 13

Figure 1: Corona users by company size and position .......................................................................................... 14

Figure 2: Corona users - total number of published apps and share of Corona apps ........................................... 15

Figure 3: Corona SDK users - industry focus when using Corona.......................................................................... 16

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

Figure 5: Complexity of Corona SDK 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 Corona SDK ................................................................ 18

Figure 7: Targeted platforms by Corona users; satisfaction with platform support ............................................. 19

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

Figure 9: Importance, usage and satisfaction with Corona accessible pre-installed applications ........................ 22

Figure 10: Usage of Corona support channels and support service satisfaction .................................................. 23

Figure 11: Corona app quality rating ..................................................................................................................... 24

Figure 12: Corona SDK - cost-performance ratio (user rating) .............................................................................. 25

Figure 13: Benchmarking methodology ................................................................................................................ 27

Figure 14: Geographical overview of cross-platform tool users ........................................................................... 28

Figure 15: Background of cross-platform tool users ............................................................................................. 29

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