Mobile apps: Developers lag behind developments

Limited resources, a lack of processes and ever-changing technologies and practices are delaying the development of mobile apps. Although the interest of end users and companies in mobile apps continues to grow, development is lagging behind demand. This was the finding of the 2015 State of Mobility Global Developer Survey conducted by Telerik, a company belonging to the Progress Group.

The companies surveyed cite more operational efficiency as the most important reason for the development of mobile apps. Further reasons include new sales opportunities (39%), increased productivity (38%), better customer service (35%) and greater involvement of customers (34%).

For 57% of the developers surveyed, however, mobile development is still uncharted territory or they have never created a mobile app. Of the developers surveyed, 47% state that they develop just a single app on average per year.

The majority of the developers have no preference for a particular approach to creating mobile apps. Conversely, 33% cite hybrid apps as their preferred approach, followed by native apps (25%) and Web apps (19%).

Although cross-platform development is a must for the majority of mobile B2B and B2C apps, it also constitutes a major challenge. 36% of respondents consider them alongside clearly organised user interfaces as the most challenging aspect of the app-building process.

In the future, respondents expect apps to be developed for a broad mix of platforms other than mobile, including Web (87%), desktop (62%), the Internet of Things (22%) and wearables (6%).

The study, which was conducted in June 2015, surveyed over 3,000 developers, board members, executives and IT managers in software companies and system integrators worldwide. The results are available for download free of charge after registering. (Source: Progress/Telerik/bs)

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