what mobile developers can expect in 2023
We can conclude that there has been a trend for both higher demand and higher salaries for Android specialists. The reason for the discrepancy is that at the moment the market expects exactly how the Apple ecosystem will develop in the world and in Russia in particular. The following factors influence the stagnation of the iOS development market
Sanctions affect sales of technology and closed iOS
– Sales of devices
If earlier smartphones of two competing operating systems were freely sold in our country, then from March 1, 2022, Apple suspended official sales of their equipment in Russia. Will parallel imports be able to fully compensate for the supplies, unclear: in the Russian Federation, sales in pieces year-on-year for Apple decreased by 45% (the entire smartphone sales market fell by 19%), while the company remained leader in money – 34% of the market, despite the general fall in the dollar. Draw conclusions whether the share of Apple smartphones among Russian users is true will drop drastically, it is too early. Many companies in the market are aiming to follow this trend, without drastic cuts or investments in iOS.
– The fight of regulators with the closeness of iOS
The market is waiting for how the Apple operating system will develop, whether it will become more open to third-party solutions and the return of applications removed from the AppStore due to sanctions. The Internet discusses the laws of different countries that direct Apple to remove monopoly restrictions. For example, in Europe waiting for devices to migrate to USB-C, in Netherlands and Korea – use of third-party payment systems, in USA – the emergence of alternative app stores.
Many specialists have left Russia, so the government has begun to see a trend towards keeping employees in the company and in the country. The state offers various preferential terms in order to reduce the desire of developers to relocate abroad. To such conditions can be attributed:
The market is looking for alternatives to the App Store and Google Play
In the first half of 2022, large Russian companies came under US sanctions. One of the consequences was the removal of applications from the stores of key vendors: the Apple App Store and Google Play. Therefore, the Russian mobile development market began to look for alternatives, the main of which is the RuStore app store for Android, developed by VKontakte and other large Russian IT companies together with the Ministry of Digital Development and launched in May. By November the number of applications in the store amounted to about 2.5 thousand, and the number of downloads – 6.5 million.
We can expect RuStore to become one of the main app distribution stores in the new year. In November, the Government of the Russian Federation included the store in the list of programs required for pre-installation on officially imported electronic devices in 2023.
Even more popular will be PWA technology or progressive web applications – a hybrid, some kind of intermediate solution between web pages and a native application.
Alternative mobile operating systems will be developed, for example, Aurora, the development of which began back in 2016 and continued this fall. current project OS development is focused on the public sector. Rostelecom, which owns Aurora, will develop it at its own expense. By the way, it is possible for Aurora to develop applications on Kotlin Multiplatform and Flutter.
Alternative Aurora is a mobile operating system from VK, Yandex, Sberbank and Rostelecom. It will be similar to what Huawei is doing now. The new OS will be based on the open source Android and develop its own services: for example, for push notifications and the use of bank cards.
How Mobile Developers Adapt to the New World
2020 has shown how quickly and irrevocably the world around us can change. Previously, the acronym was used to describe an unpredictable, rapidly changing environment. VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), now the term BANI has come to describe the new reality. The new time requires the adaptation of working tools and behaviors to the Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible world.
Futurist Jamais Kashio, the author of the term, suggests your own recipe
fragility can be overcome by developing resilience. So, for development, it is important to constantly think about business continuity and lay in alternatives in case even the most stable services like Apple Pay disappear. It is necessary to think through all possible scenarios for responding to potential crises within the framework of business continuity policies.
Let loose anxiety about the future, empathy and attentiveness to the present will help. Many companies in 2022 launched well-being programs (health and wellness programs) for their employees. This trend will only intensify in the near future.
To overcome non-linearity flexibility and creativity of thinking will be required – a skill that helps to look at the problem from a different angle and look for an original and working way out of any “dead end” at first glance.
incomprehensibility increases the need for quick learning, a skill that, for example, will come in handy if the demand for the current specialty is threatened and retraining in related disciplines is required (for example, the transition from mobile to web development).
Of the more applied tips for companies, it is worth noting the importance of working on the security of mobile applications to ensure the safety of user data. This will provide insurance against fines for leaking customer data. By the way, they are discussing more often.
The trend towards the development of secure development skills in the near future will lead to the formation of new requirements for applicants for middle and higher positions. The ability to write secure code may become mandatory when applying for a job in a number of companies. It is cheaper for companies to invest in application security during the planning and development phase now, rather than fixing bugs after release. And there are usually a lot of them: according to the company Stingray83% of mobile applications contain high or critical level vulnerabilities.
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