

Ask HN: Is mobile a good career path? - MyDummyAccount

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?<p>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.<p>All that to say, what direction do you see the mobile market going in the near-to-mid future?
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geoffw8
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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bricestacey
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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byoung2
_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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jacksond
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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xsmasher
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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gharbad
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.

