The latest report from VisionMobile - conducted in October and November, 2013 - has brought marketers an updated picture of the entirety of the mobile app development ecosystem... As usual, at 55 pages, this is the 6 hour edition, not a 10 minute read. Full of important information to carefully consider and digest, the paper covers 15 platforms: Including Android, Bada, BlackBerry 5/6/7, BlackBerry 10, Chrome, Facebook Firefox OS, iOS, Java ME, HTML5, OSX (desktop), Windows (desktop), Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Tizen.

1. Developer Economics Q1, 2014 - The
Fresh Snapshot From VisionMobile
Art Dogtiev, Head of Branded Content
February 27, 2014

2. The latest report from VisionMobile - conducted in October and
November, 2013 - has brought marketers an updated picture of
the entirety of the mobile app development ecosystem... As
usual, at 55 pages, this is the 6 hour edition, not a 10 minute
read. Full of important information to carefully consider and
digest, the paper covers 15 platforms: Including Android, Bada,
BlackBerry 5/6/7, BlackBerry 10, Chrome, Facebook Firefox
OS, iOS, Java ME, HTML5, OSX (desktop), Windows (desktop),
Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Tizen.
The paper presents the numbers for smartphones vs.
smartphones sales over the last five years (2009 to 2013) and
shows conclusively that 2013 was the first year when
smartphones outsold featured phones.
!
The leader among Android OEM is Samsung with 31%
in Q3, 2013 and though declining in Q4 with only 18%, still
holding the leading position. The reason for Android’s Q4 decline
was the launch of Apple’s iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. These
models reclaimed certain portion of the market from Android.
After Samsung comes Huawei, Lenovo and LG. HTC is not
mentioned among the frontrunners, since the company has had
several bad quarters in a row, and now it seems like they will not
recover.
!
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3. To distill the huge volume of this survey we will focus on
analyzing five crucial metrics:
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1. Developer Mindshare
2. Regional Prioritization
3. Adoption Criteria
4. Revenue Opportunities
5. Most Popular Revenue Models
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Developer Mindshare
The survey is based on information obtained from over 7,000
developers in 127 countries, ranging from US and China to
Kenya and Brazil. The global app economy was valued at $68
billion in 2013 and the forecast for 2014 says it will reach $143
billion within the year.
!
Among 2.3 million individuals involved in the app development
ecosystem, around 760,000 are located in Asia. (Apple’s
recent partnership with China Mobile makes complete sense,
especially in light of Asia’s dominance amongst the iOS
development community.)
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4. Between the different platforms this demonstrates (again)
that Android has the lead position with 71% and iOS 55%
(-1% comparing with the previous survey, within the limits of
a statistical error). Combined, these two are holding 94% of
the mobile market.
!
The surprise comes from the fact that with the huge number
of Android handsets that have flooded the market, the
number of developers in the Android camp hasn’t increased
when compared with the previous survey in Q3.
!
Despite all the tech talk that Apple is becoming less
relevant, developers don’t seem to pay attention and still
see iOS as the most rewarding and engaging development
platform.
!
On average, developers work on 2.5 platforms, down from
2.9 in Q3 2013: This speaks to consolidation as developers
focus on fewer platforms. Most likely developers have tried
developing product on several platforms and settled on
specializing in the ones they have seen the best results on.
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5. Smartphones continue to be the primary target for app
developers and it’s unlikely that it will change anytime
soon. Developers still focus on developing apps for
smartphones, choosing tablets as devices to develop for
in conjunction (83%), only 12% surveyed develop for
tablets only. The flood of tablets running Android aren’t
triggering the interest of the community, and 52% are still
developing apps for iPad only, and 28% for Android.
!
!
Mindshare by Region and Prioritization
Across all continents Android is rated as the number one
developing platform:
Starting at 67% in North America and up-to 78% in Asia. The least iOS penetration we see in Middle East and Africa
and the biggest one North America and Western Europe.
!
iOS is still the platform that developers prefer in North America and Europe, while Android wins in other regions. Most
likely such split is being dictated by the fact that mid-and-low end unlocked Android devices are cheaper than iOS
devices and hence there are more smartphones running Android in the hands of people in South America and Asia.
The difference in usage is the most striking in Asia where Android has 46% while iOS only 28%.
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6. !
Adoption Criteria
The survey shows that the idea of the “average developer” is a myth there is no such thing.
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The survey profiles several types of the developer mindshare and they all
care about different things: Hunters care about revenue, digital media
publishers care about reach, hobbyists care about documentation,
enterprise IT developers care about speed and cost. 69% prefer iOS and
Android to other platforms, and hence Firefox OS, Windows Phone,
Windows 8, Tizen, Jolla and Ubuntu have yet to provide a good enough
argument to make developers switch platforms.
!
Across the board, Android holds the 1st place position among app
platforms -to- developer in different counties. iOS holds the 2nd place
position in popularity with developers in Europe and North America, but
is 3rd in Asia, Africa and the Middle East (where HTML5 holds the
number two spot.)
!
You can answer the question, “Which platform (iOS or Android) is first in
various geographic locations?” by looking at the map:
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7. !
Revenue Opportunities
One of the most sober findings of the report is that 60% of developers
are making >$500 per month, which puts them under the “app poverty
line.”
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Among developers that make $500 - $10,000, 37% from the iOS camp
and only 25% develop on Android.
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Most Popular Revenue Models
Besides 16% of developers (a very small percentage) for whom money
isn’t the reason they are in app development business, profit is the
reason why the majority of developers are pouring their effort and talent
into creation of apps.
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At 26%, in-app advertising remains the most popular monetization
method amongst developers and in particular it’s strong on platforms
where the demand for direct purchases is weak, such as Windows and
Android.
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8. Contract development is still the most popular
monetization model, while developing apps on
commission is attributed to only 26% of the market. As
you can see from the figure to the right, after contract
work and the pay-per-download model - next ranked
are in-app purchases, indirect sales roam and in-app
advertising/brand awareness.
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The full text of the survey can be downloaded here -
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http://www.developereconomics.com/reports/q1-2014/
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Mobile Marketing Agency