Is The Grass Greener in Mobile App Development?
With the skyrocketing popularity of Android and iOS operating systems, software developers got a whole new arena opened up. Many of the programmers have progressed to concentrate solely onto Mobile Technology Development. This is mainly due to the high demand as well as numerous lucrative ideas left to explore in the Mobile App world.
Exponential growth of smartphone users
As per the survey by eMarketer, the number of smartphone users across the globe crossed 1 billion almost two years ago. The expected number of smartphone users by 2014 end is 1.75 billion.
With smartphones, iPads and Tablets getting more accessible and less expensive day by day, the development potential for mobile apps is truly vast. The under-penetration in emerging markets like India and China in Asia shows that there seems to still a lot of steam left in the mobile app development industry.
Mobile App Industry: An Introduction
The basic understanding of Mobile App Industry is a pre-requisite for becoming a developer in Mobile Application. Steve Jobs had started off the mobile app revolution with the introduction of iPhone in 2005. Initially, there were only a minimal number of apps like Youtube, Calculator etc that came pre-installed with the iPhone. The rest of the apps were web apps. But once the developers figured out the iPhone code and started off building their own apps for iPhone, Apple gave the thumps up for Native App Development. Pretty soon, the mobile app industry boomed with the entry of competitors like LG, Samsung and Motorola. There is a marked difference between native apps and mobile web apps; which can be read further on here
What is a Mobile app?
A mobile app can be described as software that could be installed by a user for performing a specific task. For eg: GPS application from Android is a mobile app that gives real time travel directions as well as track the user location anywhere across the world. Currently, even small businesses are vying to develop mobile apps for their business, furthering the opportunities for software developers in this niche.
Programming in Mobile Apps: What to expect
Although there are numerous OS available for smartphones and tablets, the most popular ones are the iOS from Apple and Android from Google. For developing mobile apps in iOS, it would be advisable to read through documentations provided by Apple.
Google also provides details regarding the mobile app development in their developer training site. In fact, a step by step procedure for developing the very first android app by you (developer) could be found here
Understanding Smartphone Architecture
For understanding the basics of generic smartphone architecture, read on further. An Operating System, or OS, is the core software in the smartphone. Here, the various drivers required for interacting between hardware and software is available. The OS itself contains various layers like Kernel, Middleware, app execution environment as well as Application Suite.
The kernel is responsible for managing the drivers which has the capability to manipulate the hardware of the smartphone, like USB port or camera. Middleware comprises of software libraries that link to mobile applications. The application execution environment comprises of all the API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) that are essential for developers to program new mobile applications for the OS. The application suite comprises of core applications packaged with the OS by default.
How to be a Mobile App Developer: Technologies, Cross Platform App Design
There are various programming languages that are used for developing Mobile Application. They vary from Android to iOS. Some of the basic programming languages include Assembler Language, C, C++, Java with additions of HTML etc. They include languages like objective C, CSS, HTML, Javascript, Ruby etc. Also consider looking at the overview of programming language requisites for Android App
One of the burning discussions on Mobile App development is the Cross platform app design, which focuses on creating a single code and compiling it into multiple platforms. This move results in reusable code, ease of deployment, and support for cloud services like salesforce.com. But as mentioned in the popular blog by Josh Clark, the design guru best cross app design is produced when the intrinsic style of each OS is maintained and the app is worked around based that. The article is a must read for all mobile app developers and aspirants.
Future of Mobile Apps
As per the reports published by MarketsandMarkets the world mobile app market would be worth US$25 billion by 2015, with Apple App store accounting for almost 20.5% of the total revenues. With apps being developed for smartphones, tablets, ipads, and even televisons, the future for Mobile apps seems rosy.
Conclusion
For a developer who is hesitant about making mobile app development as a career choice, the varied data and statistics discussed earlier makes a compelling case. But it is truly dependent on the individual’s preference as well as his passion for creating something amazing or useful for the world at large. If you are creative person with drive to succeed and the skillsets to go along with it, look no further. Mobile App Development beckons you!
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