Mobile Devices / Demand Soars for Mobile App Development Skills

Demand Soars for Mobile App Development Skills

By Michael Vizard | Posted 2014-11-19

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Mobile App Dev Backlog Builds

A full 85% of enterprises have a mobile application development backlog of one to 20 apps; 50% have a backlog of 10 to 20 mobile apps.
Mobile App Demand Explodes

In the last 12 months, more than half (51%) have launched one to five mobile app dev projects, while 44% report launching six to 10 projects.
Time to Mobile App Development

Just over half (51%) said it takes them, on average, three to six months to build a complete mobile app, while 6% admitted it sometimes takes them up to a year to build and deliver mobile apps.
Primary Goals

More than two-thirds (66%) said they are trying to generate revenue. A large percentage of those polled are trying to improve an existing mobile app (58%) or enhance customer experience (52%).
Level of Mobile App Dev Importance

The vast majority (81%) ranked mobile app dev as very important, and 18% said mobility was quite important. Additionally, 94% of senior software developers and app dev directors said it's very important.
Top Mobile App Dev Challenges

It's a matter of time and money. Just over half (53%) cited budget, and 50% cited time.
Mobile Developer Help Wanted

More than six in 10 (63%) have 11% to 25% vacancies for developers as a percentage of their current team size. Over one-quarter (29%) had 26% to 50% vacancies as a percentage of team size.
Mobile Developer Skills Sought

The top three mobile dev skills respondents had major challenges hiring for were Java (31%), JavaScript (19%) and .NET (17%). Mobile apps are driving adoption of JavaScript in particular.
Hybrid vs. Native vs. HTML5

One-third are pursuing a hybrid (33%) approach, while 29% preferred native and 22% opted for HTML5/ responsive design.
Number of Mobile App Developers Employed

There's no rest for the weary. Nearly three-quarters report having six to 15 developers working; 21% are using 16 to 30.
Reliance on External Developers

The vast majority (72%) were using in-house development, versus just over half (52%) who had outsourced IT. Additionally, 29% are using some form of cloud services.
Reliance on External Developers by Vertical

Developers go where the money is. The financial services market had the highest level of outsourced IT (58%), while manufacturing (38%), followed by insurance (37%), showed the highest level of adoption of cloud services.
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When it comes to meeting mushrooming demand for mobile applications, a crisis could soon be upon us, the findings of a new survey suggest. IT organizations can't keep pace with exploding demand for mobile apps, according to a poll of 228 app development managers and directors conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of PaaS specialist OutSystems. The result is a backlog of mobile apps that need to be built, but IT organizations report a major shortage of developers skilled at building those apps. Worse yet, many of the mobile apps being built are actually replacements for existing apps—which, for one reason or another, are not up to the mobile computing task at hand. For solution providers in the channel, this mobile computing confusion creates major opportunities, assuming, of course, they can find mobile app developers with the expertise to employ a platform-centric approach to reducing mobile app development backlogs. The study, however, also makes it clear that a big part of the problem is that many IT organizations today are still overly dependent on their own internal resources. Here are key takeaways from the study.