State of the UK Mobile App Development Industry

Mobile app development has been with us for not even a decade, and yet it is an area of huge growth and innovation. Mobile app developers across the UK are putting an awful lot of time and expertise into designing the software through which a growing number of users can experience the web’s data.

Mobile app development is the art and science of bringing functionality crucial to a consumer’s daily life or workflow onto their smartphone screens. The first iPhone was delivered to consumers in 2007, and via apps it imported the power of PCs and Macs into the palms of their hands. The entry of other players into this now-crowded field – such as Samsung and Motorola – has led to phenomenal take-up.

The UK is one of the world’s leading smartphone markets, and that makes it an important environment for mobile app developers. In 2010, smartphones outsold computers; in 2011, their use grew by 50% within six months. In 2014, there are roughly 34 million smartphone users in the UK. This is expected to grow by another ten million by 2017.

So the market for mobile app developers is very much there. Indeed, the UK generates more revenue from mobile app development than any other country in Europe. More than that, it accounts for roughly a third of all revenue earned by Europe’s mobile app developers.

According to a 2014 report from VisionMobile, there are 8000 mobile app development companies in the UK, and they employ between them 380,000 people (around 75,000 mobile app developers). They are all competing for a share of the 250,000,000 downloads (or four for every person) that happen each month in the UK. All in all, the mobile app development economy is worth about £4 billion in 2014 – and, it is predicted, £31 billion by 2025.

Mobile app developers are covered every base: games are a huge part of the mobile app development market, but workflow and other apps are also extremely popular. The key for mobile app developers is to identify a clear needs and fulfil it as simply as possible, focusing on convenience and usability.

There is a predictable concentrate of mobile app developers in London, but several other mobile app development hubs across the country, including right here in the West Midlands.

In our experience, the key for clients in all this is finding the right partner with whom to develop an app. 22% of mobile app development companies generate no income from their apps at all – and many mobile app developers have no formal qualifications. Apps Plus, based in the beating heart of a much broader design agency, boasts both the quicksilver creativity of a start-up and the expertise and structure of a larger, more robust proposition. This places our mobile app developers at the very heart of an exciting UK mobile app development scene.