The Planet of the Apps: Rise of Mobile Development

A recent article ‘Free iPhone’s Would Yield Rich Returns’ demonstrates the importance of Apples App Store to their success, so much so that if Apple were to ‘sell’ their phones for free, access to the device and its embedded apps would become even further widespread than it is now. This would increase demand for the phone, usage of Safari, iTunes, iCloud etc, and make Apple customers buy more Apple products.

Its not just Apple – Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry (well maybe not so much Blackberry), can all thank their success to their operating systems and development of mobile apps. Content creates loyalty, this isn’t news. Phone companies are well aware of this and mobile app development is undeniably booming. It is projected that the end of this year will see 102 billion mobile apps downloaded globally, with this number reaching 268 billion in 3 years time.

As huge as this number sounds it’s doesn’t come as much of surprise given the number of times you have probably heard the words ‘there’s an app for that!’ during conversations with friends. I consider myself pretty tech savvy so I am slightly embarrassed to admit I only just downloaded the British Airways app onto my Smartphone on a trip to London last week. I found it absolutely amazing that I could download my boarding pass and use that to scan myself through check in, security and straight onto my flight, just by using my phone! Then again I am easily amused.

The point is apps are renowned for being useful, entertaining and for making our lives a little easier via our Smartphones and tablets. It is safe to say that as a consumer you almost always expect any given company to have developed a mobile app to make them more accessible to you. And are surprised and (slightly) disappointed if there hasn’t been one developed yet. Statistics show that 84% of us look at our Smartphone’s first thing in the morning. What we’re looking at is most likely to be an app – an app to check our social media updates, a weather app to decide what to wear that day or simply an app to read the days headlines.

So is it any wonder that demand for mobile app developers is increasing rapidly? This demand is mirroring the demand for web developers when the internet first became big business and everybody wanted a website. Now everybody wants apps. Demand for mobile developers has doubled in the past 2 years but given this much talked about war for talent; there is a grave shortage of talent to fulfill this demand.

Enigma has seen this demand for mobile developers from our own clients. Clients are looking for the crème de la crème of candidates, not necessarily with commercial experience but with the specialist skill set to work this relatively new technology. We are currently recruiting for iOS Developers in Edinburgh and for Android Developers in Dunfermline so if you happen to be one of these lucrative developers looking for a new challenge, get in touch! Candidate Manager Natalie wants to hear from you 🙂

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