Makayla Carpenter

CITP 130 Mobile Apps

Assignment 1
9/8/14

I performed 2 separate searches for current market trends on the 4 major smartphone
platforms, which included Google Android, Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows, and Blackberry. The
first search I initiated was for a Global report of all platforms over the previous 4 years, and the
second search I performed was for the market trend of these platforms for the previous year in
the United States alone.
According to www.eMarketer.com, out of the 4.55 billion people worldwide with mobile
phones, 1.75 billion of those consumers will be using smartphones by the end of 2014. The
projection for the next 3 years is that smartphone usage will increase to nearly 50% of all
mobile phone users. The four major platforms among smartphones are Android, iOS,
Windows, and Blackberry. According to the statistics reported by the International Data
Corporations website (www.idc.com), Google Android has a commanding lead world-wide with
an 84.7% market share reported for the 2
nd
Quarter of 2014. This is a 48.6% increase since the
2
nd
Quarter in 2011! Apple iOS has secured 2
nd
place at 11.7% of the market share in 2014, but
this is a 6.6% drop in the worldwide market share since 2011. The past four years shows the
BlackBerry OS market share has dropped from 13.6% to .05%, and Microsoft Windows seems to
be gaining ground a little at a time from 1.2% in 2011 to 2.5% in 2014.
In the United States, the contention between Google Android and Apple iOS is much
closer, although the Android platform remains in the lead with 51.5% of the market share as of
July, 2014 according to www.comscore.com. Apple iOS has increased their market share from
40.4% in July of 2013 to 42.4% in July of 2014. Microsoft has also increased their market share
slightly from 3.0% to 3.6%, but Blackberry has taken a bit of a nose dive from 4.3% in 2013 to
2.3% currently. Overall, as of July of this year, 173 million people in the U.S. own smartphones,
which has penetrated 69.6% of the mobile phone market. This has increased 11.8% in the last
year alone.
Based on these statistics, my choice for a mobile platform would be Android. The
current trend shows that Android wont be going away any time soon. Not only does Android
have the largest market share in the U.S. and world-wide, but the devices are typically more
affordable. Also, the opportunity and accessibility for creating Mobile Applications is better
than it is with Apple.
In my search for available Mobile Application Development job postings, I discovered
that Android was by far the easiest to research. The amount of job postings that pertained to
Android alone was much more prominent than both Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows Phone 7
mobile app development.
NESCO Resource in Detroit, MI was offering a position for an Android Developer that
required a Bachelors Degree within the IT field and 1 2 years of work experience. This was a
full time, entry level position and the compensation offered was between $65,000 and $80,000
per year. Some of the responsibilities listed included: Work with other Engineers, Developers,
Architects, QA, System Engineers and Project Managers on solving new and existing technical
challenges; Understand requirements, implement solutions and provide administration tools
and documentation for specific projects; Follow and enhance existing development processes.
Hearst Digital Media has a position posted on Monster looking for a Software Engineer
experienced with iOS. This position required 2 5 years of experience and an Associates
Degree within the IT field. They offered $85,000 per year with a Full-time position. Some of
the responsibilities listed included: Work with product and design teams to build apps for
HDMs content and contributor experiences; Build native UIs using the latest iOS development
techniques; Craft iOS software that is reusable across multiple apps, for multiple use cases,
interacting with Hearst Digital Medias content and audience engagement platforms.
Searching for a job posting for the Windows Phone 7 produced mostly contractor
positions that were not considered full-time, and it was difficult to find any jobs related
specifically to this platform alone. While I was able to come across a few within states outside
of Michigan, I feel these would not be a good comparison to use here since wage averages and
costs of living can vary greatly from state-to state.
However, after a lot of time searching different job postings throughout many sites, I
feel like the best decision would be to consider gaining experience within the Android
Operating System. With the amount of job postings available, the opportunities seem to be
numerous compared with iOS and Windows.