Professional development

Mobile Developer Salary

The world of mobile is taking over desktop applications, and mobile development and people who understand mobile design and architecture are in demand. Mobile development involves designing apps that are based around mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones and software development for mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS. If you like development and want a change of pace from desktop apps, mobile development is a hot new career in the computer programming industry.

Prerequisites: What You Need for Mobile Developer Positions

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Mobile development used to require that you understood basic software development first, and then you could move on to mobile. However, mobile development has become so popular that now developers can work with mobile platforms and designs without being a desktop developer first. Of course, you should understand the differences between mobile and desktop (users use thumbs to interact with a screen and designs are smaller). You should also understand mobile operating systems, especially iOS and Android. Fill out the form below to get in touch with one of our Training Advisers to explore your options and determine if mobile development is the right career for you.

What Does a Mobile Developer Do?

Usually, mobile development is separated into two categories: design (UI/UX) and coding. If you enjoy creating the designs and images you see on a smartphone or tablet, then you’ll prefer to get into the design aspect. If you prefer more coding, you can look into mobile coding. You’ll need to know C-style language such as objective-C and Java. These are the basis of mobile development when working with coding. Most apps use HTML 5 for cross-platform support, so you’ll need to know how to work with HTML 5 and CSS code.

How Much Does a Mobile Developer Make?

The graph below shows you the different salaries for mobile developers from a beginner to a more advanced coder.

You start with a standard mobile development application position, which is about $80,000 each year. After you get some experience, you can move into a lead position, which offers about $100,000 to $110,000 each year. This salary also depends on the type of coding you do. Usually, iOS developers make a bit more than Android developers. This is because Android is a free platform to use while iOS requires that you have some kind of Mac computer to run iOS programs. With Android, you can download the SDK and code on any operating system.

As you can see from the graph, a coder usually makes more than the manager. A mobile application median salary is about $100,000 each year while a team lead makes about $10,000 more than that. In some cases, the lead developer makes $15,000 more. This is because a lead is responsible for the overall design and coding architecture of a mobile app while the manager oversees its production and pushes for the app to make a deadline.

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The mobile app industry is a high paying, lucrative career that is increasing in demand. As more people rely on mobile devices, you can take advantage of the industry and get started with a high paying salary in a fast paced learning career.