A new survey of more than 1,000 app developers conducted by mobile advertising platform provider Inmobi Insights revealed Android was the top platform used by developers.
The study, titled "State of Mobile App Developers 2016," showed 86 percent of developers leverage Android, followed by iOS (57 percent) and Windows (21 percent).
In addition, the study indicated Java (65 percent) earned the top spot among languages used by developers. HTML5 (45 percent) and JavaScript (44 percent) ranked second and third, respectively.
"The mobile revolution and the surge in smartphone usage is driving the market for mobile applications," Inmobi wrote in its report. "The market is massive and with huge competition the challenge for the app developers is to make sure that they are able to monetize these apps to fund innovation."
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Mobile app development is a young and growing industry, and nearly 75 percent of developers have been in the industry for less than three years.
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55 percent of developers earn $1,000 per month, and the monthly average mobile app revenue globally is under $6,000.
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Independent developers make a monthly average revenue of $1,500, while larger development studios make about 30 times more than these developers.
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One third of developers have less than 10,000 downloads across all regions. Globally, only 15 percent have surpassed 1 million downloads.
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Android tops the platforms most used by developers, while Java and HTML5 lead in dev languages used. (Source: State of Mobile App Developers 2016) |
Expect the demand for mobile apps to continue to increase, particularly as new technologies become available as part of the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT).
Technology research firm Gartner has predicted the demand for enterprise mobile apps will outstrip available development capacity five to one by the end of next year. Gartner also pointed out employees in today's digital workplace use an average of three different devices daily, and this total may increase to five or six devices as the IoT becomes mainstream.
Comparatively, quick app creation remains exceedingly difficult for developers, but this could change thanks in part to IoT advancements.
The IoT promises innovative smart watches, smartphones, tablets and other connected "things." And as a result, enterprise workers may leverage more devices than ever before to remain connected to the world around them.
App developers, meanwhile, can capitalize on the rising demand for connected things if they can deliver apps that meet enterprise users' needs consistently. And going forward, developers who can create innovative mobile apps for IoT-enabled devices can succeed in an app development market that may grow significantly over the next few years.
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