Did you know: just 6% of mobile app developers are women, and other interesting facts

If you ever wanted to take a look at who's building the apps you're using on a daily basis, let this survey by InMobi be your guide. According to the mobile advertising platform, the average developer is a 31 to 35-year old male with less than three of years of app development experience who earns around $6,000 per month. Apparently, only 6% of the 1089 developers surveyed are female, and only 16% of them have more than five years of app making experience. Hmm...

InMobi's survey targeted three regions with established mobile app development scenes – North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Globally, it is men that dominate the industry, with 91% identifying themselves as male. Europe and the Asia-Pacific region had less than 5% female representatives. In North America, around 11% of app developers were women.

According to the study, the global average age for a developer is 33. App developers in North America are older than their global counterparts, though, with 52% of them aged 35 years old or above. The majority of developers have less than three years of experience, with 34% claiming four-plus years in the industry or more. Most of them also prefer to work on their own, with 47% working as independent developers and 33% working in a team of less than five.

Unsurprisingly, the main motivation for app developers is money.

Unsurprisingly, the main motivation for app developers is money, as almost 35% said revenue was the reason they build apps. 'Fun' and 'Creative opportunity' were cited by 17% and 16%, respectively. 14% of developers said the apps economy is an exciting market to be in, and 6% said it was mainly the lifestyle that attracted them. Alas, for such a profit-minded community, rewards are actually rather low. 55% of developers make $1,000 a month at most, while 4% take home more than $100,000 per month.

The survey says North American developers can earn $9,400 per month on average, despite the fact that 49% of them still earn less than $1,000. Developers in the Asia-Pacific region have it the worst, for 61% among them earn $1,000 or less, whereas average monthly revenue is $3,400. Then again, living standards in Asian countries are different as well.

As for the kind of apps under development, more than 41% of app developers work on mobile games. This is unsurprising, considering how many games are available in both the App Store and Google Play. Entertainment apps account for 32% of all app development, although media apps are surprisingly unpopular, with only 9% of developers working in that area.

source: ARC by Applause