Even after Chen’s quest to make the platform attractive, the demand for BlackBerry app developers is significantly lower compared to iOS and Android
BlackBerry may have represented a confident outlook recently, but interest in the company’s mobile platform is at all-time low. Despite the turnaround claims made by CEO John Chen, demand for BlackBerry app developers has dropped to a new low with 97% fewer jobs posted against iOS developers, according to a report from ITPortal.com, which cites a recent study.
Lower demand for app developers
According to a new study from Elance-oDesk, an online marketplace where businesses can hire freelancers, developer jobs for BlackBerry apps are fewer when compared to other big platforms. On revenue grounds also, BlackBerry jobs contribute much less compared to iOS and Android, reflecting the scarcity of funds.
The Waterloo Ontario-based company has less than 1% of the mobile market. This market share is even less than that of Windows Phone, which has acquired around 3% of the market share, giving some scope to app developers.
Another surprising statistic that emerged from the study is that there is 66% more interest in developers for iOS apps compared to Android. Apple iPad and iPhone users are downloading an average of 6.2 apps per month compared to 4.1 for Android. From a revenue point of view also, iOS has the maximum share, but Android is in the vicinity.
Shifting focus for BlackBerry
BlackBerry’s revenue and hardware sales have been on a decline, and hardware sales accounted for 46% of the company’s overall revenue as of November 2014. The Canadian firm posted revenue of $793 million for the quarter ended Nov. 29 compared to $916 million in the last quarter and $966 million a quarter before that.
In 2014, BlackBerry’s market share dropped to around 0.5%. Samsung led the market with a share of 23.7% compared to 11.7% for Apple, according to IDC. To overcome declining hardware sales, CEO John Chen has shifted the company’s focus from devices toward software and services.
Now BlackBerry is following a new goal, which, according to BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard, is “innovate around the reality” of users preferring non-BlackBerry platforms.
“The company clearly in transition from being a former smartphone leader to now transforming a business to sell a select few or a select handful of smartphones to enterprise government customers,” Morningstar analyst Brian Colello said in a recent research note.
