Despite Australian tech companies like Afterpay making headlines for their successes abroad, industry analysts have generally held growing concerns over the past few years for the future of Australia’s tech and software development market.
These concerns have only been exacerbated by the great impacts that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has held on homegrown software development agencies and other industry professionals.
With an influx in digital development initiatives from both the public and private sector as organisations respond to growing demands for alternative zero-contact processes, Australia’s software development professionals have experienced a record level of projects falling into their laps.
The increased workload faced by Aussie software developers and the simultaneous introduction of a plethora of new jobs and roles for software developers at all levels of professional development is one of a handful of reasons why the costs of software development in Australia are rising steadily and with no end in sight.
What does this mean for Australia’s tech and digital development sectors? And how will this impact tertiary students that are looking to enter the industry? We’ll be exploring the complex answers to these questions below.
The impacts of prolific system updates
iOS app developers are amongst the most in-demand when it comes to software development in Australia, particularly due to the rapid nature of iOS system updates.
With Apple’s annual, cyclical release of new personal tech devices, app developers are generally forced to scramble to optimise their apps to ensure compatibility with Apple’s latest operating systems.
As apps can generally cost anywhere between $50,000 and $250,000 to develop, there is a significant financial strain on companies looking to develop their own company apps. This financial strain is only deepened by the need to routinely patch apps that are still in development with every iOS update.
With the release of iOS 15 in late September and the extensive list of subtle tweaks and UI improvements to iOS, software developers across the globe were undoubtedly working late hours to ensure that their clients’ apps were bug-free.
These long hours for the sake of damage control naturally translate into increased costs for companies who have invested a considerable amount into app development as is.
A shortage of skilled industry professionals
It’s these long hours with minimal notice amongst other disadvantages that prompt many software developers to leave the profession and settle in other similar industries or roles, including the increasingly attractive branch of cyber security.
As their long and irregular workdays and excess work are themselves a symptom of …….