In 2008, ARBP conducted its first annual REALbasic Consultants Survey. It was an informative survey although it had a few flaws. In August of 2009, we conducted another RB consultant survey which, hopefully, fixed a few of the originals flaws. So without further ado we present the results.
The first thing we did in preparing for this survey was to break the responses out into two groups: ARBP vs Non-ARBP. This lets us differentiate between the two groups and help us figure out who we represent.
Our first question was "Do you consider yourself a REALbasic consultant?" 36% of ARBP members thought so and 50% of non-ARPB members thought so. It should be noted that this number is misleading because there were nearly three times as many respondents in the ARBP survey versus the non-ARBP one. Due to the the survey title most respondents self-selected themselves.
For those that answered that they did not feel they were consultants we asked what the biggest barrier to them becoming consultants was. For ARPB members it was no-interest followed by time. For non-ARBP members they didn't have the time and was followed closely by not knowing where to begin. The cost of the REAL Software developer program was a close third in reasons for non-ARBP members with 19% responses versus the 9% from ARBP members.
For everyone that responded that they were not consultants the survey was complete. For those that remained we asked how much of your work is REALbasic derived. Roughly 40% of ARBP and non-ARBP alike said more than 75%. 29% of ARBP members said that REALbasic accounted for less than 20% of their work while only 20% of non-ARBP members said that. The disparity in ARBP members is probably a reflection of REALbasic being just one of the tools that a professional is using.
We then followed up with how much of their income is derived from REALbasic. ARBP members were split with 35% said more than 75% of their income and 40% less than 20% of their income. Non-ARBP members were spread out a bit more but such a small sample the non-ARBP numbers don't mean as much.
Overwhelmingly REALbasic consultants use the Mac OS X version of REALbasic with around 80% doing so. Only 20% indicated Windows. No one responded as using Linux as their primary IDE.
Where do RB consultants find work? Overwhelmingly, both ARBP and non-ARBP members found that word of mouth was the most important. A distant second was their own website. In a surprising result, non-ARBP members were twice as likely to be successful with the REAL Software developer program.
For this question there was an 'Other' response. Some of the more interesting other responses were Craigslist, the local Chamber of Commerce and REAL World. It is certainly possible that REAL Software underestimates the importance of a big international gathering of developers in finding work.
We then asked consultants what their big challenges were. For ARBP members the biggest challenge was finding work with 43%. Tied for 2nd place was REALbasic bugs, the perception of REALbasic and Customers. Non-ARBP members weren't quite so sensitive to finding work but it was still high and was tied with REALbasic bugs. In the 3rd place for non-ARBP members was the perception of REALbasic. Perhaps the most important response (or lack thereof) was the responses to lack of features. Only 7% and 10% of ARBP and non-ARBP members respectively chose that.
The fact that non-ARBP members found bugs to be a significant challenge as well as the perception of REALbasic are both issues that REAL Software needs to address long-term. Creating solid releases is a good first step, but the perception of REALbasic to the overall developer community is a tough challenge for a company the size of REAL Software. That's not an excuse but it is a recognition of reality.
When we asked if 2009 was better, the same, or worse than 2008 the general overall response was that it was the same or better. 20% of non-ARBP respondents said it was worse while 29% of ARBP members said it was. This is a general reflection of the global economy and hopefully this will change in 2010. It was encouraging, however, that most thought 2009 was as good or better than 2008.
Finally, we asked about respondents about their standard hourly rate (in US dollars) for REALbasic consulting. Non-ARBP members had a higher percentage in the $50-$99 range with roughly 50% than the ARBP consultants who were spread out more evenly over the spectrum. ARPB members had more that charged more than $99 per hour but also had a surprisingly high number that charged in the $30 to $49 range.
In the 2008 survey we had rates that ranged all over the board simply because we failed to ask respondents to convert to US dollars. This year we think the numbers are more reliable. Roughly 50% of ARBP respondents were from USA and Canada, 22% from Europe, 22% from Asia and the rest from Australia. 67% of the non-ARBP consultants were in the USA/Canada with 17% from Europe and only 6% in Asia. These geographical breakdowns might explain some of the rate differences. Unfortunately we have no way to tracking individual rates from the each region without going through the surveys individually. Perhaps next year we'll devise a way to track this.
