We Need More App Developers

There’s a lot of new evidence that suggests it’s getting tougher than ever for companies to find and hire mobile developers. And that should be a big concern to companies that are betting on their mobile future and facing this shortage of app developers.

The latest evidence for the shortage of mobile developers comes from the recruiting firm Ranstad Technologies, which found a whopping 104% year-over-year demand between 2014 and 2016 for developers with mobile skills such as for iOS, Android, HTML5, Angular, Java, and JavaScript.

Ranstad isn’t alone. CIO’s 16th annual State of the CIO survey echoed the finding as well. The survey found that 60% of CIOs surveyed had problems with skills shortages, compared to 49% a year before. A full 18% of enterprise CIOs reported a skills shortage related to mobile technologies.

One more piece of evidence: TechRepublic reports that mobile app development is one of the ten most in-demand jobs this year.

All this is nothing new, even though the problem is accelerating. A Gartner survey says that demand for enterprise mobile apps will outstrip the capacity of IT to deliver them by a factor of five to one by the end of this year. Gartner principal research analyst Adrian Leow warned, “We’re seeing demand for mobile apps outstrip available development capacity, making the quick creation of apps even more challenging. Mobile strategists must use tools and techniques that match the increase in mobile app needs within their organizations.”

Bridging the Mobile Developer Skills Gap

So what can you do about it? Gartner suggests using rapid mobile app development (RMAD) tools. These tools let business analysts, domain experts, and line of business staff (aka, citizen developers) create mobile apps without having to learn coding skills. Gartner says, “These approaches are allowing those with no programming skills or coding ability, such as people in business roles, to rapidly assemble mobile app prototypes and continuously iterate on these designs.”

RMAD tools are clearly the future of mobile development. Gartner analyst Jason Wong told SearchMobileComputing that “by 2020, 70% of enterprise mobile apps will be developed without IT involvement.”

Alpha Anywhere is an extremely powerful rapid mobile app development (RMAD) platform. In fact, in Gartner’s recent “Market Guide for Rapid Mobile App Development Tools,” Alpha Anywhere emerged as one of the most robust products evaluated; it is one of only a few vendors that meet ALL of Gartner’s criteria of popular app features in a rapid mobile app development tool. Also, the Forrester report, “Vendor Landscape: The Fractured, Fertile Terrain Of Low-Code Application Platforms,” lauded Alpha Anywhere’s low-code, rapid mobile application development, and deployment environment for its “strong” mobile forms technology.