

Mobile Dev market demand slowing down? - oneiroscopist

I have a few friends that freelance as iOS devs. Before, they were always overwhelmed with demand for their services, but now three of them are sitting without projects. Since I am considering becoming a freelance developer, I am curious: did the demand for iOS developers slow down? Do other freelancers experience the same thing?
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ScottWhigham
Interesting... It's funny how, when a tech/thing is "hot", you just don't
really look ahead 5-10 years and think about it being anything less than "hot"
then too (or at least that's my tendency). Looking at your question today in a
new light, I can see how many factors would cause this:

1) More time = more competition. The more time has passed, the more developers
have been able to learn to code.

2) More competition = better marketing by the competition. If your marketing
skills stay the same, it's likely that you'll see lower/diminished call for
services if your competition's marketing skills increase.

3) More marketing = more generalization. If everyone is advertising the same
services, what are the differentiators? Price and design are easy ones for
even the most uneducated clients to see. Architecture and "quality" are not.

4) More generalization = more commoditization. Everyone does "it" so you have
to do "it". And you'd better not charge too much more/less than everyone else.

5) More commoditization = lower profit margins.

6) Lower profit margins = adding new services to make up those costs.

Sorry for the ramble - just thinking out loud a bit. I'm probably off on one
or more of these but I like the thought process.

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denniskubes
I don't think it is rambling. I think your observations are right on and not
just for mobile devs.

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oneiroscopist
Scott,

good observation. On the other hand, one would expect the demand to be rising,
too - everybody and their dog wants a mobile app.

The reason I posted, though, was to see of other mobile devs see the same
trend.

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jamesseattle
I'm not as tuned into iOS right now but a guy I work with just got an Android
gig. As soon as he started looking he got a ton of calls and found one he
liked in less than a week.

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oneiroscopist
Thanks, JamesInSeattle. Do you know HOW he looked for them? The methodology,
so to say?

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jamesseattle
Nothing special. He put his resume on job boards and started getting calls
from recruiters. He looked at jobs offered found some he liked, applied to
some, and one of those hired him.

I'm not looking right now but I check craigslist from time to time and there
are more iOS jobs now than 12-18 months ago when I was looking.

