Mobile Development Job Trends - February 2012
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Join For FreeGiven that mobile development is the hottest thing right now, the trends are important, and at some points difficult to read. The terms included in this list were iPhone, Android, WP7 or “Windows Phone“, BlackBerry, Symbian, WebOS and PhoneGap. There is some noise in the data, but not enough to significantly affect the trends.
First, let’s look at the basic job trends from Indeed:
In the past 9 months or so, it looks like Android demand has
overtaken iPhone demand. I found this quite surprising, regardless of
how the trends were moving, so I did a little more digging. Adding the iPad demand to the iPhone demand did not change the trend much at all. Adding iOS
to the trend line changed everything, with the orange line following
the same trend as the Android trend, but about 50% higher. I may need to
include the iPad and iOS demand with the iPhone in the next update. You
can see that Blackberry is in the midst of a solid decline, with its
peak back around December 2010. Symbian does not look to have grown, and
is in a slight decline as well. Windows Phone is slowly growing, along
with PhoneGap. WebOS is already in a steady decline and may not exist
much longer than 2012, based on the news we all keep hearing.
Now, let’s take a look at the short-term trends from SimplyHired:
Interestingly, the short-term trends look almost nothing like the
Indeed trends. The iPhone was along the same trend as Android until July
2011 when it started a dramatic rise. Android is gaining nicely, with
the Blackberry trend being flat. The others are clustered at the bottom
with only the Symbian decline being obvious. Oddly, you really cannot
see any demand for Windows Phone or PhoneGap, which is much different
than the Indeed trends.
Lastly, we take a look at my favorite graph, the relative scaling from Indeed, which shows trends based on job growth:
Obviously, this graph is difficult to read due to the flattening
caused by the iPhone trend, and generally makes it useless. So, what
does it look like without the iPhone?
Now that is a little more interesting. We know that iPhone demand, as
well as iPad and iOS, is continuing to grow like a weed, but removing
it from the graph shows some interesting information. WebOS had a great
peak around February 2011, and looks to be quickly descending. Android
and Windows Phone are showing solid growth, and look like they could be
solid contenders. PhoneGap is showing strong growth, especially when you
consider that it is not operating system specific. The benefit of
PhoneGap growth is that people can more easily develop for different
platforms, and more adoption means more apps on both iPhone and Android.
Blackberry and Symbian barely register on this graph, which basically
means they are losing the mobile battle.
Obviously, iPhone and iOS development is still showing strong demand,
but Android really is a solid competitor. Windows Phone is also showing
some interesting signs, though I would still focus on iPhone development and Android development.
The PhoneGap growth is definitely something to watch over the next year
as well. The other contenders should be watched but for different
reasons. Blackberry, WebOS and Symbian are all showing very negative
signs which means developers are not targeting these platforms.
Source: http://regulargeek.com/2012/02/29/mobile-development-job-trends-february-2012/
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