How Apple's i-Empire Doubled Demand for iOS Developers
With anticipation for the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini running hot and heavy today and perhaps 1.5 million pre-orders queuing up, another Apple home run will increase demand for iOS developers. According to one Silicon Valley-based IT recruiter, the rush is already well underway. “When word comes that Apple is going to release a new version of iOS, we see a spike in demand. Apple released the developer version of the software update iOS 6 back in June so companies could test the compatibility of their current applications with the new software,” says David Chie, Chief Operating Officer at Palo Alto Staffing. “At that point they hired resources for the update.” According to an analysis of Dice job postings, Chie’s observation is correct. iOS-related job listings have virtually doubled since the beginning of the year, with a 16.2 percent increase from May to June alone. That increase marked the largest percentage month-to-month gain in the past eight months, which should come as no surprise given Apple released its iOS 6 SDK on June 11. “This type of role is in very high demand,” says David Knapp, San Francisco Metro Market Manager of IT recruiter Robert Half Technology. “The challenge is that talent pool is very shallow. As the demand picks up, our clients are having trouble filling these developer positions.” Here's what a few iOS developers and employers have to say about the wooing: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S71ekNfCfgw&w=560&h=315&wmode=window&h=315] With more than half a million iOS apps already available in the App Store, which will likely need to get upgraded, we’ll soon see an even larger demand for iOS developers. “We expect to continue to see the strong demand for iOS developers. The rate of user demand for mobile apps is increasing at a huge rate,” says Chie. “We’re still receiving a consistently high number of requests for both iOS and Android developers.” Right now, he says, the split is 85 percent for iOS and Android developers combined and 15 percent for “other.”