A Few Thoughts on the World of Mobile Development

Making a successful mobile application in today's market is hard. Gone are the days where it was enough to slap some buggy code together with a cute name and a half baked idea, and sit back while thousands of dollars magically appeared in your bank account. For an app to succeed today it needs to be polished, bug free, easy use, catchy, ..... and the list goes on. Part of this is due to the over saturation of the marketplaces. So many people get into programming because they want to make an app for their favorite platform. This leads to a lot of apps and consequently, demands more for an app to stand out from the other's around it. Take a second and look at your phone. Specifically, look at the apps you have installed. Did they exist two years ago? and if so, did they look anything like they do now? Finally, who makes the apps you use? Are they from a two person operation working out of a basement or a multi-million dollar company that can higher the best and brightest to work on the smallest details? That's the hidden status quo behind mobile development.

If you go to developer sites for iPhone and Android they are rather open. They talk about design principles and provide full documentation for the devices you want to create for. They make it seem like anyone can create the next big thing in a few days, a week at most, and that's just not going to happen. You see, even if you have a great idea you are competing with the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter and the dozens of other big names that have the resources to push very high quality products out the door in a very short amount of time. For an app to generate money it needs a large user base, and to support that large user base you need money. See where this is going. There is only so much that you can do without capital.

And yet, I don't really know if I don't like the way things are. The rising barrier to entry helps to deter those who really shouldn't be making apps. Those that want to game the system or release apps that are beyond just poor attempts at humor. I guess I take this situation as an indication that mobile platforms are maturing. They are no longer the slapdash arena of tinkerers and hobbyists but places that require the same focus and dedication that building a large distributed web server or desktop application calls for. The tools for creating these applications are getting better and better. The communities surrounding these endeavors is becoming more knowledgeable, And I can't say that's a bad thing. The main group of people who really benefit from this are the users and that's always good as I am one.

Now if only I could come up with an idea.....