

Ask HN: Which is better ,career wise? iOS or Android application development? - rshetty


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fhoxh
I think the better question would be:

What is best for your career given that the future is -- by definition -- not
knowable and that the past and present are not necessarily indicative of the
future?

After all, what is better today may not be better tomorrow and what is better
tomorrow may not be better the day after. We live in a world where all
technologies are in a state of decay, and our environment is rife with
disruption and innovation.

Go deep (specialize) just enough to be unquestionably proficient, but not
enough to be one of the world's foremost experts. Go broad (generalize) just
enough to be learned (well-informed) in discordant technologies, but not
enough to be omniscient (all-knowing). I call this type of a person a
"genspec", a generalist-specialist.

For example:

1\. It's more useful to learn functional programming, object-oriented
programming, procedural programming, etc., than to learn e.g., 3 different
object-oriented programming languages.

2\. It's more useful to learn embedded development, mobile development, web
development, etc., than to learn e.g., three different mobile development
platforms.

3\. It's more useful to learn e.g., 3 different OSs than to learn e.g., 3
different distributions of a single OS.

Optimize yourself for change, adaptability, and continual learning of many
materially dissimilar topics.

That's what's best for your career.

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pdenya
I'm going to jump in here with an actual answer since I rarely see mobile
development job posts where html5/lua is an acceptable alternative. iOS is
currently more in demand and likely will be for the near future. Most
companies go iOS first even if they plan on releasing for android, so even if
you're skilled with bost it'll probably be easier to market yourself as an iOS
developer.

~~~
ja27
I do both iOS and Android and get a lot of interest from companies and
recruiters. Except for one company, everyone is more interested in iOS skills.
They'd love to have both but iOS is in bigger demand and higher shortage.

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wankerrific
Both. Learn both Objective-C AND Java. Learn cross platform development
languages and techniques as well - javascript and Lua.

Whether you are looking for employment with someone else or starting your own
company, having a broad set of skills is always valuable.

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i0nutzb
The one that you enjoy!

There is nothing worse than doing something you don't like, no matter how good
you are paid for.

Do what you enjoy and will be a great for your career!

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ISeemToBeAVerb
Why not develop cross-platform applications? As Zenst said, you could go the
HTML5 route and use something like Phonegap. Personally, I'm a Corona SDK
user. I can't comment on Phonegap, as I've never used it, but Corona makes it
trivial to develop cross-platform apps written in Lua.

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ixacto
iOS. Here is my completely unscientific observations from a fairly wealthy
place in the USA.. People see apple and assume that they will have to pay lots
of [real money] to use those things. Apple has put a ridiculous amount of
effort into making "Mac" and "iPhone" into luxury goods. Now all the trophy-
wives and cougars have iPhones.

I want android or something more open to win. They don't have the brand
though.

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Zenst
If i'm honest I'd say HTML5 as that is the common denominator and were
everything will end up. So might as well beat the rush.

