"I can learn Objective-C and get a job building iOS apps."

...And make $250/hr contract rates. There is ludicrous demand for iOS work. I know several enterprising devs who got into Obj-C over Java purely because the pay is insanely good.

And give me a break. What serious companies are doing web apps or video games in Java in 2012? Sure, Facebook and Twitter are using Java internally, but only for really specific technical challenges forced on to them by scaling. Objective-C is way more fun from a product perspective because you're close to the user. That is desirable for many.

My firm "only" manages to bill at 175/hr on the East Coast (two offices: Boston and NYC) on iOS work, and we've seen a somewhat steady decline in demand. Things might be different in SV. We're pretty content with the amount of work we've already drawn from iOS development, though, so if the cash cow is dead we won't be too upset.

iOS is just getting started.

Android lost 13% US market share in Oct. and Nov. to the iPhone (cnn.com)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3445664

There's a difference between market share and demand for app developers.

Important distinction: that's 13% of smartphone sales, not total market share. Numbers for sales available here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57355900-37/iphone-4s-inch...

Numbers for total market share here: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/29/apple-and-android-gain-s...

> And make $250/hr contract rates. There is ludicrous demand for iOS work.

I don't buy this. Any links?

How many developers can expect such rates in face of more than 250,000 apps in competition? I think only some big publishing houses would pay this big money because in the long run they would get their money back.

Smaller companies would never pay this rate because AFAIK the average income for even very good apps is the range of some thousands or some ten thousand dollars. In case of say 10.000 dollars, all the money would be lost to the developer for just 40 hours of work, that's four days :-)

Consulting work for enterprise companies. They aren't selling their app anyways, it's just a checkbox their sales people use to sell the real product.

I know people making $200/hour for iOS work

Ouch. As a (Mac) Objective-C programmer for 10 years now, whenever I see stuff like this, it makes me wince that I passed up iPhone development. (I just didn't like how restrictive Apple's rules on the iPhone are.)

In Germany, it's way below $250. According to GULP, the largest freelancing website here, the average is around 71EUR/h (around 90USD).

> I can learn Objective-C and get a job building iOS apps.

Mac desktop apps too! ;)

Ron (of #code2011) did mention something along these lines and I had meant to include it. Thanks for the reminder -- added it into the post with a link to this comment.

You're not going to "get a job" writing video games in java no, not when you're comparing the number of job openings.