Tech firms face scarcity of mobile software devs
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 22 October 2010, 22:58 IST
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Tech firms face scarcity of mobile software devs
San Francisco: With the current explosion of new applications, it is expected that the market for mobile applications will be "as big as the internet", peaking at 10 million apps in 2020. But what if there are no qualified developers to create applications? According to a recent survey technology companies are facing a scarcity of qualified developers to create applications for mobile devices, reports Douglas MacMillan from Bloomberg Businessweek. According to the survey launched by online job board Dice Holdings, percent of employers and outside recruiters that hired for mobile-related jobs this year plan to boost such hires in the next 12 months. More than half the respondents said the supply of quality mobile-software designers and engineers as "scarce." The online survey, conducted in October second week, was based on 283 recruiters who use New York-based Dice's site and said they had hired mobile professionals this year. Mobile was described as one of the top three priorities in technology hiring by 35 percent of employers. A year from now, as more businesses incorporate mobile technology, Silver predicts that number will be closer to 50 percent. The vast majority of employers, or 95 percent, said mobile hiring was either competitive or extremely competitive. That competition has intensified partly because of increased demand for talent in other countries, especially India and China, said Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture, Silicon Valley Network, a San Jose-based group formed by business leaders to focus on talent-pool concerns in the region. While programmers and other skilled workers from India and China have had a significant presence in technology companies during the Internet boom, "in the past decade, that has tailed off significantly," Hancock said. Earlier, a survey done by Chetan Sharma Consulting has found that companies requuire app developers as the market for mobile software surges to $17.5 billion by 2012, from $4.1 billion last year. The demand for programmers who can write for mobile platforms, such as Apple's iPhone, Google's Android, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry, has stoked competition among recruiters, driven up salaries, and led employers to consider getting new talent through acquisitions. "We're seeing a lot of companies that have mobile as a component of their strategy. There just aren't that many people who have experience with mobile software, and there's a desire for people who know how to make that work," said Steve Fredrick, General Partner at private equity firm Grotech Ventures in Vienna, and Founder of job site StartUpHire." More than a fifth of respondents said they hired substantially more mobile experts this year than last year, and more than a third said they added slightly more. Some 36 percent hired about the same number, while 6.6 percent said mobile hiring fell this year. In the next 12 months, a fifth of recruiters anticipate a substantial increase in hiring, 37 percent see a slight increase, and 34 percent plan to hire about the same number. The most common salary range for mobile engineers and designers was $75,001 to $100,000, according to 41 percent of respondents. About 28 percent said average pay was $100,001 to $125,000, while 21 percent said it was $50,001 to $75,000. Almost a third of employers raised salary levels for the average mobile worker "higher than normal," citing the increase in demand for talent. Experience with Apple's mobile platform carried the most weight on resumes, with 72 percent of recruiters saying they are hiring for development of iPhone applications, and 38 percent saying iPhone expertise is the most attractive among platforms. About 60 percent are hiring for Android development, and 23 percent said new recruits with knowledge of Google's platform are most highly prized. Some 48 percent of employers are hiring for BlackBerry, while just 16.1 percent said that's the most desirable type of mobile expertise. Some businesses are resorting to acquisitions. About half of the respondents plan to add mobile-software expertise by buying companies in the next 12 months.

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