The iPhone almost seems ageless by this point but it is hard to forget that it was not even half a dozen years – from June 2007 to September 2012 – between the release of the original iPhone and the iPhone 5. iOS vs Android is a battle that has heated up in just five short years and is going to get more interesting with the introduction of Mozilla’s Firefox OS. We have seen the long projected downfall of the PC – in the face of web-oriented software applications – finally coming to fruition as the bottom is falling out of the desktop/laptop market. It can take years to master a programming language, and an comperable amount of time to learn a framework or operating system. With the demand rising as quickly as it is for mobile application development, many developers have not had the time (especially if they are already working 60+ hours per week on desktop-bound apps) to come up to speed with the intricacies of iOS, Android, Objective-C, Sencha Touch, Appcelerator Titanium, and a host of other technologies and platforms. We should also keep in mind that the mobile world embraces programming paradigms with GPS, sensors, and other input factors that have not traditionally been present in software. This has led the Wall Street Journal to declare the market for mobile software developers “too shallow.” In some cases mobile development teams are expected to double in size, and management must deal with the difficulties of locating people with the appropriate skills. What can mitigate this problem? Mobile development training for existing staff is not something that many companies can afford, but companies fortunately sponsor many “portathons” and “hackathons” that incentivize developers to experiment in the mobile realm by offering cash rewards for completed apps. Furthermore, time should eventually sort the problem out; future generations of college students will most likely have been playing with app development from a young age, especially given how accessible mobile SDKs have become. Finally, an increase in adoption of HTML 5 for applications will encourage more cross-platform development using the existing JavaScript and HTML skills that many developers already possess. Do not worry, however. There are thankfully some who are ahead of the curve in terms of mobile development.
