India To Have The World’s Most Extensive App Developer’s Base By 2024

Today with the outbreak of the most contagious virus, the world has got limited into our mere smartphones. Anything and everything we wish for is brought to us like a genie by the smartphones. Every single wish of ours has an app today. How tech-based and app-centric human lives have turned today; every single phone is a witness to that. 

Over more than three decades ago, young Steve Jobs spoke about a shop for software in his speech. A hub where software can be bought over the phone line was hovering in his mind. Almost 25 years passed by when the company established by Mr Jobs, Apple Inc. giving shape to his idea launched the App Store- the first-ever Mobile application store built exclusively to market applications for iPhones specifically. After this incident in Autumn 2008, slowly other operating systems started entering the application market with Android Market, Blackberry World and Windows Phone Store. Fast forwarded to today, there are more than 3.4 billion smartphone users all over the world which is an inevitable reason behind the super boom in the App market knocking at the door. 

You cannot ignore that India has remained well aligned with global innovation. Keeping pace to that India is a growing App market of the whole world. To note, India reserves the top spot in the total number of apps installed and used every month. The lowering of the smartphone prices has encouraged its use even in tier II and tier III cities of the country. Cheap and widely available internet has joined hands with the low cost smartphones in taking India towards a truly Digital Nation. 

Job Creation in the Indian App Market

The whole world today is dependent on smartphones and applications that power them. Consequently, this has caused a massive surge in the demand of App Developers as they reserve the core expertise in the domain. Engineers with experience and knowledge in the field have seen a growth in hiring in the mobile application development segment. A report by PPI says that India has 1.674 million app jobs in 2019, which was 39% rise than it was in 2016. According to the same survey, India is expected to surpass the total app developers’ population of the USA by 2024. To break down the data for an in-depth look, Bangalore came out as the leader in the Apps Job economy with 3,62,000 jobs with Delhi second in the row 2,48,000 and Mumbai in the third with 1,37,000. 

Amid this situation when the whole world is connecting from home, apps are the only medium that has kept human lives normal. As people are increasingly getting attached to smartphones, mobile apps have become their interface to cars, homes, schools as well as health care providers. Also, keep in mind that the rise in IoT is going to need more highly functional and sophisticated apps to cope with the digital environment. The interesting fact is that India is already one of the leading countries for mobile app usage, with more than 500 million smartphone users and increasing. 

The programming languages that are of high importance are namely Java, Kotlin, C#, HTML and JavaScript. In the field of App development, Java is a highly preferred one among developers. For both Android and iOS app developers, Python is a great skill to adopt in the days to come. 

Breaking the barriers with ‘Hyperlocal’ & ‘Regional Content’

India is known all over the world for its unity in diversity. The uniqueness about our country is that it comprises of numerous communities speaking different languages and following different social norms. This poses two things for businesses and app developers. Firstly, the app businesses have a broad base of customers to address, and it becomes harder for them to target a particular segment of consumers. Secondly, the businesses can classify the population-based on tier I, tier II and tier III cities with varying levels of technology adoption. The overall good news is that smartphone sales have increased and is upward rising in all segments. 

One big challenge that the tech industry faces when it is about India is the language. Due to the presence of multiple regional languages, smartphone manufacturers, as well as app developers, face problems. Though most urban places and big cities prefer English as the language, other small towns face trouble in catching hold of the content in English. To combat this, many app developers are embracing this unity in diversity by including contents, even in prominent regional languages. With this, the acceptance of smartphones and applications has increased countrywide, and services are being catered to a larger base. 

Joining of OEM’s to app economy for new revenue streams

The most prominent and dominating app market is the Google Play Store, where a minimum of few thousands of apps are published every day. This is both good and bad indication for the app developers. The good is that it proves that the market for mobile app development is still up-and-coming and upwards rising. And the bad news is that this exceptional growth is making the market over-crowded with more and more competition. To create a boom in the market, the developers need to bring in something unique and extraordinary to win the game. The struggle for a better hardware margin by Indian OEMs is likely to dominate the international brands. Indian OEMs are looking towards creating their app stores through which they can take away the dominance by Google. 

Developer revenue in the Indian App Market

On an average, a smartphone user in India spends 3.5 hours on the phone daily, which is specifically app-centric. Though some specific apps of choice are only accessed still, the time spent is more crucial for revenue generation. Some top methods of revenue generation through apps in India are Paid Apps, In-app advertising and In-App purchases. 

Conclusion

To conclude, the overall app development industry is growing at a fast pace making more and more opportunities for app developers in the country. Inclination towards localized contents and preference for local services is going to be great news for app developers to thrive on the growth wave in the App industry.