Spring 2015 Developer Survey
Originally posted at http://iphoneramble.blogspot.com/2015/04/ios-and-mac-developer-demographics.html.
A slack group has assembled recently in the Utah area around iOS and Mac development. It’s become a nice little group. But I’m curious how it differs from the developer community from 2009, when I first started getting into iOS development. So I put together two quick polls. One specifically covered salaries and benefits. The other poll covered everything else. I’ll cover the bigger one first.
What type of Developer are you? (52 responses)
| iOS | 52 | 100% |
| Mac | 10 | 19.2% |
| Android | 4 | 7.7% |
What type of iOS apps do you develop? (52 responses)
| Productivity/Business | 43 | 82.7% |
| Utilities | 21 | 40.4% |
| Games | 8 | 15.4% |
| Entertainment | 8 | 15.4% |
| Health | 2 | 3.8% |
| Social Networking | 1 | 1.9% |
| Education | 1 | 1.9% |
| IOT | 1 | 1.9% |
| Music | 1 | 1.9% |
Are you using Swift yet? (51 responses)
| Some | 27 | 52.9% |
| Not Yet | 14 | 27.5% |
| Only | 10 | 19.6% |
| Never! | 0 | 0.0% |
I asked what people were using to develop apps. e.g. Xcode, App Code, Xamarin.
4% were using App Code. Everyone else used Xcode.
How do the apps you have developed recently make money? (52 responses)
| App doesn't need to make money directly (e.g. banking app) | 22 | 42.3% |
| Paid App | 15 | 28.8% |
| Other | 3 | 5.8% |
| IAP | 7 | 13.5% |
| Ads | 1 | 1.9% |
| VC Funded | 1 | 1.9% |
| IAP+Ads | 1 | 1.9% |
| Both Paid and IAP | 2 | 3.8% |
How do you primarily make money from apps? (52 responses)
| I develop apps for a company | 33 | 63.5% |
| I publish apps myself | 9 | 17.3% |
| I do contract app development | 7 | 13.5% |
| I work for Apple | 2 | 3.8% |
| Teaching | 1 | 1.9% |
Do you do contract app development? (52 responses)
| Sometimes, on the side | 32 | 61.5% |
| No | 15 | 28.8% |
| Yes, full time | 5 | 9.6% |
What is your (or your employer’s) hourly rate for contract app development? (37 responses)
The average rate was $104. If I remove some of the outliers, the average is $112.
Salaries and benefits poll (35 responses):
This poll ran separately from the above.
The average over the whole dataset was $105,000. I tried to exclude some of the outliers ($85k to $130k) and the average was $112,000. But that is a pretty strong signal at $120k.
Benefits:
| Health Insurance | 31 | 91.2% |
| 401k/Retirement | 22 | 64.7% |
| Free iDevices, as needed | 18 | 52.9% |
| Stock Options | 19 | 55.9% |
| Profit Sharing | 6 | 17.6% |
| Pays for service plan for iPhone | 5 | 14.7% |