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43% of enterprise app developers make more than $10K per month versus 19% of their counterparts focused on consumer apps.
20% of all developers globally are targeting enterprises, up from 16% just six months ago.
Growth in direct revenues from app stores is slowing, while demand for good mobility solutions is outstripping supply.
These and other insights are from the latest global survey of mobile app developers completed by Vision Mobile titled Developer Economics: State of the Developer Nation, Q1, 2015 available here (free, opt-in required). Their recent global study of 10,000 developers across over 130 nations shows a growing polarization of global app economy revenues. Please see page 40 of the study for the methodology.
Key take-aways include the following:
- Mobile app developers concentrating on the enterprise have a greater chance of making more than $10K per month in revenues compared to their consumer-focused counterparts. 43% of app developers prioritizing the enterprise are making more than $10K a month, compared to 19% of developers prioritizing the consumer market. 18% of mobile app developers prioritizing the enterprise are making over $100K a month compared to 9% of developers prioritizing consumer markets.
- Slowing growth of app store sales and larger developers’ ability to scale development, selling and upsell strategies are contributing to app revenues polarizing globally. These two factors are making it increasingly difficult for smaller developers to scale their sales in consumer markets. 52% make less than $1000 per month, while 24% make over $10K a month. Revenues are polarizing by platform priority.
- Android has 71% mindshare and remains the primary platform for the majority of full-time professional developers worldwide with 40% prioritizing this platform. iOS is the most preferred in North America and Europe (42%) by full-time developers, and has a 58% mindshare in these regions. Vision Mobile believes iOS has the high end of the market locked up due to this operating systems’ designed-in support for larger-screen devices and
Apple ’s current and future premium smartphones.
- Enterprise IT continues to be 8% of the global developer community with Explorers and Hunters (23%) being the two largest developer segments overall.
- 53% of developers are currently working on Internet of Things (IoT) projects. Of the many categories of IoT markets the survey includes, Smart Home is the most popular market with 37% of developers working on projects in this area. Wearables are the second most-targeted market with 35%, retail with 20%, and connected car & industrial IoT (both 18%).
- 83% of developers globally are using third party tools, with the percentage of developers using cross-platform tools growing from 23% to 36% in the last 6 months. Developers who prioritize the enterprise are relying on cross-platform tools to deliver a consistent user experience on mobile and web-based apps. 47% of developers rely on user analytics, 31% on ad networks, and 30% on cross-platform tools. iOS developers rely on user analytics the most (57%).
- Mobile e-commerce sales are a $300B market in 2015. Vision Mobile predicts e-commerce will generate 2.5 times as much revenue as all other revenue sources combined. App Store sales are second in total revenues at $40.5B, despite being the slowest growing revenue models. Mobile advertising will grow to reach $34B. Vision Mobile predicts subscription revenue will grow the fastest of all to reach $9B this year. Other revenue models including royalties, affiliate sales and selling services to developers will generate $18B in revenue this year.
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