Google has just recently endorsed Kotlin for Android development, and Java-based app developers could be in for a close race, as analysts have predicted that Kotlin will overtake Java on Android by next year ending.
When Google endorsed Kotlin in mid-2016, Kotlin accounted for merely 7.4 percent of Android apps, while 92.6 percent went for Java, according to reports by Realm.
But a year later, it climbed to 14.3 percent, with Java at 85.7 percent; and the growth was tied to its modern appeal to developers.
Kotlin is easier to understand, and write, and a little higher in abstraction than Java; also it's designed with mobile in mind from the ground up. In fact, any Android developer without Kotlin skills is at risk of being seen as old fashioned pretty soon.
Kotlin adoption rates, however show the US might be quicker when it comes to Android languages, and might give US developers a leg up in the future on the platform.
Realm also predicted that Kotlin may even change how Java is used on the server side.
The report is based on anonymized assessment of 100,000 developers using its database, with languages been used, determined by the developers’ selection of SDKs.
