Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path?

Posted by MyDummyAccount on Thursday April 07, 2011 @05:46PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I am currently working as a web developer and have been for the past few years. I'm fairly happy at my current company, but I was recently approached by a consulting firm about becoming a mobile developer (iPhone, Android, perhaps some HTML5 apps). It seems like a good situation and I think it would be fun. My biggest question is, is mobile development a good field to get into, or would I be better suited in the long term to stay in web development?

My fear is that mobile may begin dying out over the next few years and leave me with a lot of unusable experience. On the other hand, mobile is a market currently experiencing a lot of growth, so it could be even bigger in the future.

All that to say, what direction do you see the mobile market going in the near-to-mid future?

( 6 comments | 8 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by geoffw8 on Thursday April 07, 2011 @07:12PM (#2421625)

Hey - ex-mobile guy here.

I used to work at Blyk, ad funded mobile network that started in the UK and has grown out into some other territories.

I guess the short answer is: you can make a ton of money in mobile.

Anyway, I've got friends now who are on the visual side of things (ranging from all levels of experience) and they charge anywhere from £200-£500 a day.

You have to get into the right circles, i.e. with the ad agencies (not mobile agencies) - then you can make an absolute fortune. For these guys mobile is a dark art, they don't get native apps (still) and HTML 5 is still a long way away for them.

If your going to go down this route, don't package yourself up as a developer or designer - if you are able to plan a campaign for someone like Mastercard, with a gimmicky app or similar (and make the prototype) then your absolute gold dust.

Anyway, long story short - lots of money in mobile, knowledge is sparse, work with ad agencies and definitely (if you can) freelance.

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Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by bricestacey on Friday April 08, 2011 @12:42AM (#2422483)

This comment piques my interest. I am a developer and my girlfriend is a digital media planner. We want to maybe start a business together that merges both our skills, but we're not sure how to implement anything you mention. I'd love to chat, but I don't see any contact info in your profile. My email is in my profile.

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Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by byoung2 on Thursday April 07, 2011 @06:30PM (#2421481)

All that to say, what direction do you see the mobile market going in the near-to-mid future?

I think we'll see a convergence of the web, mobile, and tablet spaces. Mobile is largely OS-specific at this point, but we are seeing a trend toward HTML5 apps. Same with tablets, where HTML5 was already popular, given the large screens and the fact that there were fewer OS-specific apps than with mobile. And with the web, the newest generation of HTML5-compatible browsers just launched, with FireFox 4 and IE9 joining WebKit. To design a new app today, particularly with audio and video, your best bet would be to go with HTML5 so you could kill 3 birds with one stone...you can reach the web, mobile, and tablets, without having to reinvent the wheel on both iOS and Android.

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Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by jacksond on Thursday April 07, 2011 @06:37PM (#2421504)

First things first, mobile is not dying out. It will be an increasingly large portion of application development for a long time, all of the major players are deeply committed to mobile.

I would not worry about gaining 'unusable' experience. Working in IT/Development means you need to be constantly learning. Gaining experience with the hot platforms (iOS/Android) now will only make it easier to adapt to future mobile advances.

Like I said, the mobile market will only increase in the near to mid future. Anyone entering the mobile space will need to be aware of how to more effectively server their users/customers in a cross-channel and cross-platform way. I believe you can't go wrong with focusing on becoming a mobile expert, if you are passionate about what it offers.

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Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by xsmasher on Saturday April 09, 2011 @02:04AM (#2426638)

I'm not sure how mobile could "die out," unless you mean web apps will replace native apps. That hasn't happened on the desktop and it won't happen in mobile; they'll continue to live side by side into the far future.

I work in mobile games and we're desperate for good devs.

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Re:Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? by gharbad on Thursday April 07, 2011 @05:55PM (#2421368)

I doubt that mobile platforms/languages change as fast as the flavor-of-the-month in the web space..

Looking ahead several years, you're likely to be using a new language/tools regardless.

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