Highway to Disruption – Present and Future of Mobile Application Development in India

By Madhavi Shankar

The number of Smartphone users in India is on the rise. Studies show India has overtaken the United States to become the second-largest Smartphone market in the world. By 2020, we will account for about 12.5 percent of the total global Smartphone market. A study conducted early this year stated people in countries like the UK and US, accessed the internet using phones over 33% of the time, while in India, internet was accessed via mobile almost 80% of the time.

With optimistic projections for Smartphone adoption and internet accessibility, the mobile app market is growing rapidly; this in turn provides a huge scope for mobile application development in India.

Why App Development?

“Mobile Application Development is the future of Software Development” - Google’s Eric Schmidt.

Mobile app development is a young but growing industry. With the increase of smartphone adoption and internet accessibility, there comes a need for better applications.

Four reasons to choose App development:

• Job Opportunities
• Easy to Build
• User Adoption
• Future Scope

 

How does one go about becoming a mobile app developer?

The primary objective as a mobile app developer is to decide on choosing the mobile development environment you want to work on – Native or Hybrid. The most popularly used coding languages by Native Mobile app developers are C#, C++, Java, Swift. The most popularly used coding languages by Hybrid Mobile app developers are HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript.

The bare minimum requirement that most recruiters look for while hiring a mobile app developer is a bachelor's degree in app development, software engineering, computer science or any other closely affiliated programming field.

Beyond this, you should consider to enhance your skills with a certification in mobile app development offered by companies like Google, Oracle, etc.

Most companies usually prefer developers with hands-on experience and updated knowledge. The best way to do this is by enrolling for online training programs offered by companies like CompTIA and Simplilearn.

Business and Job Opportunities

• Current Market – There is tremendous need for innovative App developers in India; with this comes a rise in need for better applications. This is a perfect time to get to the market quickly and build disruptive mobile applications. With large contribution from the start-up scene, the need for Mobile App Developers has seen a surge in the current job market. Many Indian start-ups like Flipkart, Paytm and others are prepared to pay competitive salaries to candidates who possess the necessary skill set.

 

• Learning and Building Mobile Applications – Learning and building Mobile Applications is fairly simple and cost effective. With training and learning tools available at our disposal. Today, any software engineer capable of thinking out of the box will be able to put these Mobile App development tools to extraordinary use.

• User Adoption – With the explosive growth in the use of smartphones, studies show Indians usually spend an average of 2-3 hours on their cellphones every day; majority of this time is spent on messaging and other consumer apps. Soon Indians will be using their smartphone for most activities from shopping to paying bills; from business transactions to networking on social media; from watching video tutorials to movies.

• Future Scope – As App development in India is at an early stage of growth, the demand for disruptive mobile apps continues to grow rapidly. Because of this, there are plenty of opportunities to build your own product, to work as part of a company or work in an indie developer. Students seeking this path need not worry about the future of mobile app development in an emerging market such as India.

My Calling – From a Student to an Entrepreneur

Like most students, I moved overseas (Australia) after engineering to pursue a Masters degree in Engineering; I wanted to apply management to engineering and hence decided to study MBA in the field of Technology Management, soon after.

I was very clear that if I were to work as a student, I would only work a job close to my area of study that I can put on my resume. Most students studying abroad end up working any job without thinking through it. It is very important to choose a job keeping your career path in mind.

A month into my course, I interviewed for my first job – A front desk receptionist at a two-month-old IT startup which had four employees at that time. As the company grew to 100+ employees worldwide, I played many roles; finally over a span of three years, I was made Product Manager. Working here and being so involved with day-to-day operations, sales and product, made me fall in love with the startup lifecycle. By now I knew I wanted to start a company.

From Idea to Market

If you wish to build a product or start a service company on the Mobile Platform, research intensively and solve a real problem that makes life easy for your end users.

The idea for a mobile app arose while as a student. As an international student living in Australia, I struggled with two things – The tedious process of finding the most suitable accommodation for myself and reaching out to students already living in student housing.

Upon arriving back in India and validated with over 200 students across 20 university hostels, we soon realised this is a problem most students struggle with. Backed by the intensive research and market validation, we then launched a mobile application on Android and iOS built to assist student hostel for automating manual processes while focusing on interactive social networking for information sharing among students, parents, and hostel management.                                

• Path to Progress
• Solve real problems
• Get to market quickly
• Don’t give up or get demoralised
• Keep testing and rebuilding
• Keep collecting feedback
• Execute what you believe in and execute fast
• Find a mentor - Today every experienced person can be a mentor, but pick the one who adds real value to your project.

 

About the Author

Madhavi Shankar, Entrepreneur and Technology enthusiast.

Co-founder & CEO of SpaceBasic Corporation, an EdTech start-up headquartered in California, operating in Bangalore since February 2017.

Passionate about building and engineering consumer driven products across scale.