Globally there are 1.5 billion smartphone users and counting. Today in the United States more than 90 percent of adults own a mobile phone, and more than 60 percent of those are smartphones – a number that continues to rise daily from its current 147 million people. Mobile devices are also on pace to overshadow the personal computer for internet connectivity. The latest statistics show that one quarter of all Americans use only mobile devices to access the internet.
With the rise to dominance of mobile devices over the past 10 years it is a logical extension that app developers have also moved to the front of the marketplace. Currently there are well over a million apps available worldwide, and that number is growing steadily.
App development can be surprisingly easy and does not require a PhD in Computer Science. Flappy Bird – which made it to the top of the list of the most downloaded free game and was earning an estimated $350,000 per week before its creator removed it out of guilt that it was too addictive – was created in just a few days.
However the combined skills of talented individuals can also be a formidable force in the app universe. The world’s most popular messaging application WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by a few former Yahoo! employees and coding professionals. Early last year the company was acquired by Facebook for a headline sum of $19 billion.
While talented individuals can strike gold on their own or with a startup, or make a lifelong career with an established app company, everyone in this field faces one major obstacle: 99 percent of all apps are only used once. Combating this statistic takes a combination of skills in marketing and app development – two critical fields, one old and one new, on which there is a seemingly endless amount of information.
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