Google Searches for Mobile-App Experts
Engineers, Product Managers Are Needed as More Development Is Brought in House to Counter Apple — Google Inc. plans to hire dozens of software developers to create applications for smartphones and other mobile devices, people familiar with the matter said …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's plan, reported by people familiar with the matter and not yet confirmed by the company, follows months of warnings about a mobile-talent crunch: Business Week reported in October 2010 that tech companies were already seeing a dearth of mobile-software developers. Bringing app development in house is framed as a counter to Apple, whose tightly integrated hardware-and-apps model has set the competitive bar.
The significance is less the headcount than the strategy shift: a company built on web search and open platforms deciding that first-party smartphone apps now need dedicated internal teams.
First-order effects
- Dozens of new software developers and product managers would be hired directly into Google's mobile organization, expanding first-party app capacity beyond what Android partners ship.
Second-order effects
- Every additional in-house team Google fields draws from the same thin developer pool identified in October 2010, forcing Apple, handset makers and startups into more aggressive compensation bidding for experienced mobile engineers.
Third-order effects
- If platform owners keep absorbing app development in house, the durable advantage shifts toward whoever can stockpile scarce mobile-engineering talent — a talent moat rather than an SDK distribution play.
The trend: Smartphone-platform competition is moving up the stack from operating systems to in-house application teams, constrained by a mobile developer supply that was already declared short in 2010.