A developer survey by Appcelerator and IDC found that developers are more interested in Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform now than a year ago, which was attributed to the company’s partnership with Nokia – with the first Windows Phone devices from this vendor hitting the market in the last few days.

According to the poll, 48 percent of developers are interested in the platform, with 28 percent stating they are “very interested” in developing for Nokia’s new Lumia handsets. This latter figure is more than twice the interest in Symbian and MeeGo since Appcelerator began reporting mobile platform interest in January 2010.

Contrastingly, the quarter saw a “sharp fall-off” in developers very interested in RIM’s products, with BlackBerry OS phone interest dropping 7 points to 21 percent, and PlayBook QNX-based tablets dropping 6 points to 13 percent. This means that the platform has now been displaced by Windows Phone in the eyes of developers.

The news is also concerning for RIM which has confirmed its plan to migrate to a QNX-based platform for its next-generation BlackBerry smartphone platform, and is now losing developer interest in both its operating systems.

Interestingly, the survey also saw a slight decline in interest for Android (4 points for smartphones and 6 points for tablets), which was “likely due in part to interest in iOS5” – deemed the most significant announcement of the last quarter by respondents. This was despite Samsung becoming the world’s biggest smartphone vendor during the period.

Appcelerator and IDC also noted that “weak tablet sales weighed on Google’s OS.”

Developers have also maintained their interest in HTML5, with 66 percent of developers “very interested” in building HTML5 websites, the same as the last quarter.

Contrastingly, the connected TV app development appeal is on the wane. One year ago, 44 percent of developers were very interested in Google TV, and even following the launch of a second version last month, this has now dropped to 20 percent. Apple TV saw a smaller decline, from 40 percent to 26 percent.

HP’s decision to stop offering devices powered by webOS, alongside the subsequent uncertainty over the future of this device platform, led to a tailing-off of developer support for this OS.