Surveying more than 100 developers for each platform, studios have also been given the anonymity in which to vent their frustrations and it would appear there are frustrations plenty.
Time after time
Most notable is the time taken for apps to make it to market. Open-First reports that scores of developers for Apple's App Store and especially Ovi Store are concerned with the slow app approval process, and the lack of transparency that accompanies it.
"Developers would like this process to be consistent, flexible and quick, while maintaining a certain level of quality control," the report says.
But, it would appear developers would like to have their cake and eat it, with Android Market which has no such approval process and allows apps to go straight to market also coming in for criticism.
"Android developers... complained the most about the lack of a centralised quality review process that leads to poor visibility of better quality applications and ultimately to low sales," Open-First continues.
"This seems to discourage some developers that invest relevant amounts of time and money on Android applications."
Communication is key
In essence, developers are looking for a happy medium between the two polar opposites. However, when things go wrong, they'd also like a better way to communicate with their userbase.
Only 40 percent of App Store developers are satisfied with tools provided for end user support although this compares favourably to the 24 percent for Ovi Store and 13 percent of Android Market developers who said the same.
"Developers said it would be greatly beneficial to them to have a more effective way of interacting with their final users on the app stores," the report summarises.
"They'd like to be able to reply to user comments and reviews in order to answer questions, notify them about fixed bugs and updates."
Poor communication is just one part of a multitude of problems Open-First claims developers encounter on a day to day, app to app basis.
Policies, new rules and agreements are fall requently implemented with little explanation, it claims, with developers encountering auto generated responses whenever they take any issues up with the platform holders.
Money matters
Managing expectations appears to be a problem too. When asked whether their earnings from each marketplace is higher or lower than they'd anticipated, 81 percent of Ovi Store studios claimed to be making less than they had previously thought they would.
49 percent of Android developers said the same thing. Apple's App Store faired better with only 28 percent complaining.
Indeed, 48 percent of iPhone studios are actually making more money than they'd predicted.
As such, it's no surprise that 78 percent are satisfied to some degree with the platform, and 99 percent state they will publish games on the marketplace again, with Android a close second on 94 percent and Ovi Store bringing up the rear on 81 percent.
You can see the report in full by clicking here.
