In this post from VentureBeat, a survey is cited saying that only 8 percent of developers are writing applications for Vista this year. While these claims don't seem very substantial (I'm thinking that a more interesting question is how many developers are writing for .Net and not targeting Vista specifically over Windows XP), the following section nevertheless struck me:

Granted, the 8 percent data is taken from only 380 North American developers surveyed, but over half of them said they were still developing for previous iterations of Windows. Meanwhile, Apple’s OS X has seen a 380 percent surge in growth as a targeted development platform.

It seems for the past couple of years I've been steadily hearing about Mac OS X apps that make me envious. The other day, Andy Ihnatko mentioned one called Fluid on MacBreak Weekly that allows you to create site specific browser applications. As someone who keeps Google Calendar and Gmail tabs open all day, an app that allows me to cleanly separate key web applications into their own space that is integrated well into the OS seems very appealing.

But that's just one example. Here are several other compelling Mac OS X apps that come to mind at this moment:

• Textmate
• Keynote
• Development tools for the iPhone
• Quicksilver
• Apps from Panic
• SnapzPro
• iLife
• Parallels
• Skitch
• Apps from The Omni Group
• Twitterific
• Growl
• Firefox*
• iTunes*
• VLC*
• Twhirl*
• Lightroom*

* Ok, so I cheated a little and these are available for Windows too, but that's part of the point.

Of course it's easier to spout off a bunch of trendy apps than to actually derive value from them on an everyday basis, but I still can't help but feel intrigued by the amount of exciting products coming out for OS X. Looking at the development tools available for the Mac, it doesn't make me very envious (I'm thinking of you, Cocoa and Xcode), but yet there seems to be a vibrant community of Mac OS X focused developers who seem to be skilled in developing sophisticated and well-designed UIs.

I'm not sure where this stems from, and maybe it's just my perspective at the moment, but it still seems like a factor that's coming to the forefront.

And, of course, there are several key applications for Windows that I just couldn't do without such as Visual Studio.... and... maybe Microsoft Office... and... oh yeah, this issue tracking software we use at work, but wait... it has a web-based version...