Nearly every developer is a mobile developer, even if they don’t call themselves one. Over 75% of today’s professional developers belong to the mobile developer market.
The latest Developer Media survey, based on a sample of over 20 million unique monthly developers who visit our sites, suggests developers are most likely to be “mobile developers” in their spare time (43%). They’re nearly as likely to be producing mobile apps and sites as part of their full-time job along with other development projects (36%). Dedicated mobile developers make up only 6% of the overall developer market.
Mobile developers might not call themselves such, but three out of four developers are developing for mobile consumption. This statistic suggests that to reach mobile developers, marketers should simply reach “developers.” It also indicates these mobile developers are as interested in general development subjects as they are mobile-specific subjects. Since three in four developers are working on mobile projects along with other projects, marketers reach “mobile developers” effectively without targeting mobile-specific sites or keywords.
Our research also shows a contrast between US smartphone platform use (comScore, three months ending Dec 2013) and developer interest (Developer Media study). We see Google and Apple (Android and iOS) leading the market, splitting the majority of interest in mobile platforms an assessment echoed in the latest Vision Mobile market study. “The 700 million smartphones shipped in 2012 are underpinned by the Google / Apple duopoly in mobile platforms which jointly commands 80% in mobile developer mindshare,” said Vision Mobile. Developer Media’s research reflects the same number.
What the comScore usage reports do not show is the high level of developer interest in Microsoft’s comparatively new Windows Phone 8 platform (the Developer Media study showed 35% of developers interested; Vision Mobile reports 47%) as well as HTML5 as a lingua franca for the mobile web (the Developer Media study showed 52% interested in HTML5; Vision Mobile reports 50% interested in “the HTML-based set of technologies as a deployment platform).”
While the majority of today’s Mobile Developers are developing for Apple and Android, additional opportunities lie with the tools and technologies that support app development on Windows Phone 8 and HTML5.
Contact:
Jeff Hadfield, CxO
jeff@developermedia.com
@jhadfield
Developer
