[mikstur]

Hey all!

We recently had someone come to the school I'm at and talking to us about ITC and mobile devices. From this Talk I realised (obviously) that IT is definately going into the mobile direction. Everything is going mobile (iPads, tablet PC, Phones etc.).
My question is, What would be the best language to program to devices. In general. Also What would be the BEST direction to go to if wanting to study for software engineering etc. Im still in high school studying IT so Ive been thinking a lot. I would like to do Software engineering in C++ and maybe java. Also database programming etc.

Any other thoughts on the future of IT, programming and mobile devices? What should I head for?
Thanks

[tlhIn`toq]

You have to program the device in the language the maker built it for.

Apple devices are built in objective-C, for example. But a Windows based tablet would be in any of the .NET languages (most of the time). Google devices in their language and so on.

[SpeedisaVirus]

I was recently reading that something like 80% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or intend to implement tablets into their work environment...maybe that was just counting iPads. You really have to target specifically what you want. It's time consuming to make most things work on each platform as you have to pretty much recode it. That is the problem we have run into here at work as many clients are asking for a tablet app. Our approach, and it works in our case, is to make our web application as effective as possible from a UI and rendering standpoint on each device since we don't have the manpower to have people porting to all of these platforms. That probably won't work in most cases though.

[macosxnerd101]

I was reading this article, and saw that Mobile Developers were in demand. That being said, mobile app developers will also have to write server-side solutions to interact with the clients. It's great to be able to develop Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile apps, etc., but in this industry, those aren't the only things you should be focusing on.

[mikstur]

Yeah I can imagine that mobile app or mobile programmers are in high demand as thats the direction IT seems to be heading, I stand corrected though.
So I guess I should just start out in software engineering or something to do with programming and then I can have a broad view on everything.
I wouldnt mind developing apps for mobile I suppose

[Dean_Grobler]

Since I'm almost done with my Java course, I'm gna head into Android, as it's written 'n Java anyways, and there seems to be a nice future for Tablet and mobiles running Android. Plus making apps for such devices just seems so much cooler doesn't it??

[SpeedisaVirus]

Just remember to be flexible Android Java has several gotchas that standard Java does not.

[mikstur]

Yeah developing mobile apps and for android seems a lot cooler .

im thinking of starting out with xcode or making apps for apple iphone and ipads since Ive gone pretty far with C C++ and understand a lot of it. I also have an iphone and ipad to mess around with which will be fun Just need to get my hands on a mac pc 8o

[Sethro117]

I've done a little mobile development but not to in depth. I've been doing Windows Phone development lately but am thinking of picking up on Android and getting started with some Mobile Health Info stuff, I think that will definitely be an industry to explode towards all mobile.

[Martyr2]

I currently work for a mobile application developer and we develop in objective-c for our iphone/ipad apps and java for our Android devices. But like tlhIn`toq has already stated, several languages are used for mobile and it depends on the device.

As for direction on software engineering it all depends on what you want to do when you get out. If you want to specialize in mobile, Java/Objective-C/.NET are all hot. If you are developing for desktop then you want C/C++/.NET or Java and if you are developing for the web PHP/ASP.NET/Javascript etc.

I always recommend to those new to the industry to get their feet wet with one .NET language and another (Major) non .NET language like Java, C/C++ or Python. That way you the best of both worlds and will have a solid grounding no matter which way the industry turns.

[Brandon_R]

The best thing would be to not put all your eggs in one basket. Don't learn only mobile programming or only desktop programming. Try to spread out your specialties.

[sas1ni69]

I don't think desktop applications or even web applications are going away anytime soon. It's just that mobile applications have joined them in popularity thanks to the rise of the smartphones (and the decrease of their prices), most notably the iPhone and Android based phones.

And as everyone has already seen this year, there are almost a billion tablets due to launch running all sorts of platforms from WebOS to Windows.

I'd suggest that you try developing something for Android first. There are a lot of resources to help you.