Mobile development services market passes $20.5B in 2011

The worldwide market for mobile application development services--including software creation, management, distribution and extension efforts--reached $20.5 billion in 2011, according to new data published by research2guidance. By comparison, publishers earned $6.8 billion in mobile app download revenues last year.  

"Classical" app creation services like concept creation, design and coding continue to generate the majority of development revenues, research2guidance reports, adding that newer services like app libraries, white label solutions and multi-platform development tools have yet to claim a major share of the market despite their growing popularity. Prices for development services vary dramatically from region to region: Developers in the United Kindgom bill $626 per day on average, while their counterparts in India charge just $138 each day. "App development partners using price as the main criteria for selection will not be lead to an optimal solution as most of the price differences are offset by the additional time needed by offshore app developers," writes research2guidance co-founder Ralf-Gordon Jahns on the firm's blog.

Starting salaries for mobile application developers are expected to increase 8.2 percent this according to a forecast issued in November by professional staffing services firm Robert Half Technology. With a growing number of companies looking to add mobile software expertise to their IT staffs, developers can look to land annual salaries between the range of $72,500 and $102,750. Web designers, network engineers and data warehouse analysts will also be in demand during 2012, the forecast states.

For more:
- read this research2guidance blog entry

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