It’s a good time to be an app developer

“The app economy is serious business. Whilst there are plenty of stories of independent developers becoming millionaires in a very short space of time, there are also a growing number of app development consultancies who are becoming big and significant employers,” says Michael Bennett, director a ReThink Recruitment, whose business certainly won’t be hurt by thousands of app developers looking for a new job.

“These consultancies are increasingly prepared to pay very high salaries for app developers with the right kind of skills.”

Apps sometimes feels worryingly like the web design industry in 2000/2001 in that sense: salaries climbing fast for developers, lots of trendy agencies to work for and no shortage of recruitment firms saying how marvellous it all was. 2001 being the year when things went south for a lot of those agencies, developers and recruitment firms.

Bennett thinks consumer businesses “now take traditional web development skills such as familiarity with HTML5 or basic web platforms for granted in their in-house web-teams Not having app development skills will hold web developers back in the job market and will hurt their pay prospects.”

A responsive future?

This is an area that’s constantly shifting, though. You might argue that an increasing amount of apps are basically HTML5 with a native wrapper anyway: there’s still demand for those “basic” web development skills.

You might also argue that experience with responsive web design is going to be much more valuable for employers in 2013, and furthermore that what’s needed are skills developing for people’s behaviour on different devices, rather than just apps.

Something good from ReThink’s survey: a reminder that “for every Angry Birds, there are hundreds of other apps that are designed and launched that sink without a trace”. Which the company sees as a spur for developers to and I’m paraphrasing here get a proper job.

“Although some developers have become millionaires almost overnight, app developers will find working for companies on a contract or permanent basis is potentially more lucrative,” says Bennett. “Working on a contract basis could also help budding independent developers subsidise their own personal app projects.”

The “sink without a trace” point can’t be hammered home enough. In June 2012, Canalys conducted some research into the apps industry’s long tail. Senior analyst Tim Shepherd didn’t sugar-coat the findings:

“We estimate that up to two-thirds of the apps in leading consumer app store catalogues receive fewer than 1,000 downloads in their first year, and a significant proportion of those get none at all,” says Shepherd.

US technology site GigaOm published the results of its own survey of app developers in September 2012, finding that more than half were making less than $500 a month from their apps, while a third of developers of purely ad-supported apps were making less than $100 a month.

That survey backs up Bennett’s suggestion of spare-time apps development, though: it found that 75% of respondents either had a main job and developed apps in their spare time, or only spent part of their main job making apps.

A bright future... for some

Anyway, late 2012 is a good time to be a talented app developer, whether you’re one of those hobbyists, or working for a startup, agency or corporation. But as in any boom time, it’s probably a good idea to think hard about what’s coming next: for your employer and the wider industry.

Like that web-design bust back in 2001, the meaningful companies with real business models will prosper, the skilled app developers will gravitate towards them or towards in-house development at traditional companies salaries will be a mark of individual skills and value rather than a sign of an overheating market.

Guardian News and Media 2012