It sure is an exciting time to be a programmer in the mobile sector. Certainly mobile computing is a trend companies simply can no longer ignore. The proof is in the figures. I was reading this morning that Apple’s iPhone sales were up 7% alone this year. That’s 21 million iPhones sold in 09 sofar.Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry and Andriod are the other major players experiencing incredible growth.

The Press releases we are bombarded with daily can sometimes be confusing. Basically the major mobile players are all at war and promising their latest products will quash all competition. So one minute Apple iPhone may be King and the next minute you are reading that Google Andriod is going to knock them out of the park.

For a developer this can be pretty intimidating. It takes a significant amount of time, effort and skill to learn a mobile development platform. To think that all you effort may have been wasted on a doomed platform can be scary.

I have been luck enough in my job to been given the task of developing a mobile version of one of our products on iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. So I have a significant amount of experience on 3 major mobile platforms. I know management will be making scheduling, budgeting decisions etc soon to have this product on the Andriod due to its huge market share growth.

Most developers I talk to want to learn to program on mobile platform for the following reasons :

  1. Fatten up the cv with mobile related keywords that recruiters are currently searching night and day for.
  2. Curiosity
  3. Get on the Money Train

My advice to them is : There is a significant learning curve for each mobile platform so you should start off with a mobile platform who’s SDK (Software Development Kit) is closest to your current development experience.

E.g If you are a .NET developer then the obvious choice would be getting to grips with the compact framework class library and features so you can quickly churn out some Windows Mobile apps. If you are a Java developer then moving to Andriod or Blackberry would the quickest route.

For me the learning the iPhone sdk was my biggest mobile challenge. This was mainly because of my lack of experience with, c language, apple os and xcode. On top of that Apples development language “Objective C” which is an object oriented extension of  “c” was another alien syntax for me. The huge plus for me after coming to terms with a new development environment it that I found on top of loving the new platform the different programming models gave me a much design and implementation skills.

I’d heard on an interview in dot net rocks that every developer should try and learn at least one new platform or language each year. At the time I thought that this was madness as us programmers already have enough learning material and constantly changing concepts on our plates. But certainly in the lat 18 months after being exposed to many different environments and languages, I feel my capabilities as a developer and architect have come on leaps and bounds.

I say to those who think they will become millionaires when they develop some ingenious game for the App Store : “I really wish you the best of luck but the odds really are stacked against you. Unless you really do create a killer app, you will also need excellent marketing skills and a significant budget just to get your application seen.”

To conclude, go for it an start learning your mobile platform of choice today. Reap the experience benefits it will bring. Instead of consuming your mind with thoughts of unrealistic riches (Nothing wrong with dreaming – But cushion disappointments with the experience you’ll gain ) focus on the benefits you will gain from learning new technologies like Open GL etc.

You never know when that light bulb goes off and you have that reall killer app idea. At least you will then be ready to design and implement with a clear mind and end product goal.

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Filed under: Mobile Development

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