4 Great Reasons to Pursue a Career in Mobile App Development
Imagine getting to work in a field that's rapidly changing the world yet is still in its earliest days. Mobile application development is exactly that. It's an awe-inspiring new frontier of opportunity for anyone who wants to help expand the creative and technological possibilities of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Here are three of the best reasons why:
1. Explosive Market Growth
People love engaging with technology that makes their lives easier, more productive, better connected, and more entertaining. And the numbers prove it. Check out these stats:
- In fact, 46 percent of the world population currently uses the Internet. And 3.8 billion mobile subscriptions are active globally.*
- Canadians, on average, spend 1.9 hours per day accessing the Web in some way on their mobile devices. Americans spend 2.5 hours per day.*
- There are now more than one billion smartphones in use around the world. And global sales of mobile tablets are rising quickly. Nearly 200 million were sold in 2013 alone.**
2. Incredible Variety
Competition for users ensures that device manufacturers and app developers continue to push forward new innovations. And that leads to a stunning diversity of mobile technologies you can learn and projects you can work on.
For example, consider the battle for market share between the Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows mobile platforms. Android currently dominates in the area of device sales, but Apple keeps pace with its main rival in terms of the availability of apps and the number of downloads.***
This competition has led to the development of all types of new device capabilities and applications. From games and social media to news and video to e-books and productivity aides, mobile users can now find an app for almost anything.
But the variety of skills an app developer can learn in this field is equally as impressive. Think of the great enjoyment that can come from diving into fascinating areas like:
- User experience design
- Native, Web, and hybrid application development
- Responsive design
- HTML5 and CSS3
- Programming languages like Java and Objective C
- Location-based services
- Augmented reality
3. Outstanding Salary Potential
In Canada, the typical salary for an experienced mobile app developer is $62,576. But it's possible to earn about $85,006 or higher.****
And the sky is the limit for what you can make by becoming an independent publisher of your own apps. So it pays to have skills in as many areas of this field as possible. If you know how to develop an app through the stages of conception, planning, design, coding, testing, delivery, and promotion, then you can create a tremendous competitive edge that helps generate a lot of income.
4. Plentiful Training Opportunities
It makes perfect sense: Learning mobile app skills is something you can do from almost anywhere. On-campus and online programs exist to suit almost any type of learner and any type of mobile or web development ambition.
* we are social, Digital in 2016 website last accessed on September 14, 2016.
** mobiForge, "Global mobile statistics 2014—Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators," website last visited on September 13, 2016.
*** Mobile Statistics, website last accessed on September 14, 2016.
**** PayScale, website last visited on February 28, 2019.