Finally, we have the last job trends post in August, mobile development job trends. These trends are not quite as clear cut for job demand as the language trends given how often these terms get used. However, the trends can still measure the amount of buzz these technologies are generating. The terms included in this list were iPhone (including iOS and iPad), Android, WP7 or “Windows Phone“, BlackBerry, WebOS, Apache Cordova and PhoneGap. Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch were reviewed but have not generated enough demand to really appear on the charts.

First, let’s look at the basic job trends from Indeed:

After a dip in the beginning of the year, iOS and Android development are recovering nicely, with iOS maintaining a significant lead. Not surprisingly, Blackberry demand continues its decline. Windows phone has stayed fairly flat this year and I do not expect the trend to change much. PhoneGap and Cordova are slowly gaining, but nothing significant to talk about yet. WebOS has declined and we have not seen any signs of life regardless of how open it is now supposed to be.

Now we can look at the short-term trends from SimplyHired:

SimplyHired only showed me this image once and any change in my query would default to data that is almost a year old. So, I am not sure if SimplyHired will be used much longer. So, iPad spiked for a short while and returns to a more normal trend in the past month or two. The Android and iOS trends remain very close to each other, while the iPhone-specific term continues its rapid decline. This basically means that development is shifting from phone-only to all-things-mobile. Blackberry does not show the same type of decline as in the Indeed trends, but it is definitely on a downward trend. Windows Phone is showing a slight increase since May, and Cordova looks to be following the growth trend. The others, WP7, WebOS and PhoneGap, really do not register much demand.

Last but not least, we look at the relative growth trends from Indeed:

As you can see, Android is growing at a ridiculous rate which dwarfs everything else in the chart. So let’s look at this without Android:

Obviously, removing Android helped considerably. PhoneGap is clearly showing the most growth since the beginning of 2012. This makes sense given its cross-platform capabilities. I would expect PhoneGap demand to start showing real growth in the next year. Windows Phone growth is now consistently outpacing WebOS which is now declining slower than last year. iOS growth continues a slow increase, which makes sense given how explosive that growth was initially. Blackberry growth is obviously in decline as well, which should not be surprising either. Cordova does not appear on the graph yet as it is still fairly new in terms of demand.

Overall trends have not seen significant changes as Android and iOS cement their leadership positions. PhoneGap is starting to show signs of gaining real adoption and it is only a matter of time before the demand trend changes. Surprisingly, Apache Cordova has not impacted these trends much at all. It is still a bit young, but the next year could be interesting for that project. The next year should also be interesting for Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch. Obviously there is limited demand now, but as more devices launch with these OSes, there has to be some affect on demand. Lastly, if you are looking to learn more about mobile development, you can always buy a book on iOS development, Android development or PhoneGap development.