December 17, 2015 : Appirio invests in iOS badging program in response to demand for greater access to developer talent
Indianapolis, IN – December 17, 2015 – Enterprise demand for iOS applications continues to rise, yet the talent pool to meet this demand is still in its infancy. Global cloud services company Appirio is introducing a badging program aimed at growing its iOS Developer Community and addressing the enterprise's need for easy access to development and design talent. Appirio plans to add 20,000 badged iOS members to Topcoder, its global crowdsourcing community of almost one million designers, developers and data scientists.
Already deeply rooted within consumers' digital lives, iOS enables the enterprise to become more agile and to deliver exceptional employee and customer experiences. Forrester estimates that seventy-three percent of all apps distributed to enterprise users by their technology organizations are for iOS devices. Further signifying the growing demand for the simplicity of the iOS experience, iOS 9 is on more than 70 percent of all iOS devices and is on pace to be the fastest adopted OS in Apple's history.
"Our customers are asking for quick solutions to the challenges presented by today's app economy," says Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio. "Combining the expertise of our growing iOS community with Appirio's unique delivery model is a natural progression in empowering our customers with effective mobile strategies and the specialized skills to execute on those strategies."
Developers and designers also benefit from Appirio's iOS growth initiatives. They connect and engage with their peers across the globe, receive feedback from top iOS developers and designers, showcase their talent, and earn cash prizes, all while solving tough real-world business challenges.
Appirio's iOS badging program will offer the opportunity to earn four badge levels:
Education Badge – Members complete iOS training activities to help boost their iOS design and development skills.
Show Your Skills Badge – Members pass a peer-reviewed challenge to demonstrate core skills.
Developer and Design Challenger Badge – Members pass review on challenges tackling real-world problems to earn top prize money.
High Performer Badge – Members demonstrate expert iOS programming skills through multiple challenge submissions and excellent results.
To date, Appirio's crowdsourcing community has completed more than 1,600 iOS challenges and paid out more than $3.5 million in prizes. This new investment in iOS application development targets businesses looking to upgrade their mobile strategies by delivering intuitive, consumer-grade user experiences.
"Working with mobile platforms in general involves a wide range of technologies, which makes the development process more varied and fun. iOS just feels more robust among the others – it keeps close to modern innovations," said a Topcoder community member who goes by the handle [N1k1tung]. "The new language was a great improvement over Objective-C in terms of reducing verbosity, making writing code quicker and supporting it easier. Swift kept most of Objective-C features as well as adopted many valuable features from modern programming languages, making it the most fitting tool for developing in a world where technology is constantly changing."
About Appirio
Appirio is a global services company that helps customers innovate and win in the new cloud economy. As the leader in enterprise crowdsourcing, we deliver unmatched customer value by combining the world's top talent with a unique cloud services platform. Our platform harnesses the power of one of the world's largest crowdsourcing communities, thousands of ready to deploy assets, and leading cloud, industry and technical experts, to help our customers drive competitive advantage. Appirio is a trusted partner to some of the world's largest brands, including Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, eBay, Facebook, Georgia-Pacific, Home Depot, Moen, and Sony Playstation.