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John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

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Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#141

Post by ceejayoz »

cppsnob wrote: post #80

I was sad to see that Gruber couldn't step out of his Apple bubble to tackle this topic (or any topic, ever), so I will: Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. Take a look around you.. how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none. In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the…

> And even they, if they got $1 for each of their 500MM downloads, have still not made as much as Modern Warfare 3 made last week ($738MM in revenue).

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess MW3 cost a little more to make.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#142

Post by rkudeshi »

tzury wrote: post #102

I am trying to figure out why don't Gruber himself listen to his own advice and develop iPhone/iPad app already. I mean, writing good technical reviews and opinions about iOS is a very nice thing. But give advise to mass developers should be done from experience, rather than theory. As for the advice itself, it is right that in five years from now, mobile devices will be all over the place and today's sales volumes a…

For me, it is a web developer who decide his web apps are to be working with chrome browsers only, since the number of chrome installations today is nothing comparing to what it will be in 5 years from now, and simply ignoring safari, firefox (and even ie, oops).

Five years ago, when Chrome didn't even exist, someone could've said the same thing about Firefox. Funny how fast things change, eh?

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#143

Post by jonhendry »

SquareWheel wrote: post #139
jonhendry wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The first wave are the tech enthusiasts ... are interested in finding a good SSH tool, or an mail client that supports PGP. These were the main customers of the first iPhone." Given that the first iPhone had no 3rd party apps apart from web apps, this seems highly unlikely. It's more likely true of early Android phone buyers.

Good catch, though there were definitely apps on the first iPhone. AppTapp/Installer was introduced around Christmas time if memory serves, and there were apps, utilities, and even a few games available.

Still, those presumably required jailbreaking, which I gather was not done by the majority of iPhone 1 owners, and certainly not by the earliest buyers, who bought before that was even an option.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#144

Post by dextorious »

cppsnob wrote: post #80

I was sad to see that Gruber couldn't step out of his Apple bubble to tackle this topic (or any topic, ever), so I will: Everyone who thinks "I should be developing for platform X" is thinking far too small. Take a look around you.. how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none. In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the…

"""how many of the great companies were formed developing for a particular platform (unless it's their own)? Almost none."""

Tons. But depends what you mean by great. I hear that that Angry Birds company is doing ok. And I know there are thousands of companies making Windows only products that make quite well.

"""In 10 years, do you want to be the old and busted equivalent of the MFC expert whose software was hot in year 2000?"""

Neither I want to be the old and busted failed startup founder.

"""You don't make the Googles, Facebooks, Twitters, of the world by developing just for iOS."""

More like: you don't make the Google's, Facebooks, Twitters, period. Those kinds of companies are so few, you are almost as likely to win the lottery than create one.

It's just the protestant ethic of "hard work = success" and the retroactive worshiping of their founders that makes it seem not so.

There's nothing wrong about building a smaller business, either a lifestyle mom+pop shop, or a 100 employee company. Not only there's nothing wrong about it, but you are far more likely to succeed.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#145

Post by jonhendry »

tintin wrote: post #107
ricardobeat wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faster growing, copycat infested, low paying market? Not that you shouldn't develop for it (hell, >1 million activations/day), but the climate over there is very different.

There is a lot of that 'climate' that you will never see. We are developing Android apps that will never see a Market Place. We just put them on the devices directly. Those apps are used by big companies. They are very specialized apps. Why Android? Because we don't need Apple to install the apps. And a lot of developers already know Java. So, don't believe the hype.

There are also iOS developers whose apps will be directly installed by large companies, rather than going through an app store.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#146

Post by jonhendry »

andrewfelix wrote: post #2

I usually find Gruber's tone to be arrogant and unnecessarily facetious. But I think his analogy is great.. "This is like being a Rock and roll musician in the late sixties. This is like being a film maker in the seventies..."

A rock and roll musician in the late sixties? Looking back at the music of the 70s, I'm not sure that bodes well.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#147

Post by mcantelon »

tintin wrote: post #107
ricardobeat wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faster growing, copycat infested, low paying market? Not that you shouldn't develop for it (hell, >1 million activations/day), but the climate over there is very different.

There is a lot of that 'climate' that you will never see. We are developing Android apps that will never see a Market Place. We just put them on the devices directly. Those apps are used by big companies. They are very specialized apps. Why Android? Because we don't need Apple to install the apps. And a lot of developers already know Java. So, don't believe the hype.

The ability to do this has always been - to me - the obvious advantage of Android over iOS, but this is the first time I've seen anyone bring it up.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#148

Post by bookwormAT »

cpeterso wrote: post #94
comedian wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that I think about it, Android has 3X (or whatever) the market share of iOS, and no one seems to be making a ton of money from Android (except Google), the future for Android developers is pretty grim if you ask me.

Does Google make money from Android?

Since Android is a defensive strategy to keep competitors from controlling the platform below Google's services, you could say that Android secured all of Googles current and future earnings. That's a lot of money.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#149

Post by r00fus »

mcantelon wrote: post #147
tintin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot of that 'climate' that you will never see. We are developing Android apps that will never see a Market Place. We just put them on the devices directly. Those apps are used by big companies. They are very specialized apps. Why Android? Because we don't need Apple to install the apps. And a lot of developers already know Java. So, don't believe the hype.

The ability to do this has always been - to me - the obvious advantage of Android over iOS, but this is the first time I've seen anyone bring it up.

Because there is no advantage - Apple allows organizations to setup their own App delivery mechanism, which is fully secured - cost to entry is trivial compared to App dev and normal deployment costs.

Re: John Gruber Has Some Career Advice For Developers

#150

Post by robmcm »

billybob wrote: post #136
robmcm wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Browser support is still a huge issue that people tend to gloss over. It's a problem any standards based environment will face. Native will always develope faster and be more consistent.

If you're shooting for the mobile market, writing a web app that works in the 5 most popular mobile browsers is a lot easier than rewriting your native app for each platform you want to target.

Isn't there huge fragmentation in Android webkit? Plus focusing on iOS and Android covers most 'mobile' cases. Other platforms hold a harder justification.

Perhaps the route forward is a simple web app to cover everyone, then focus on the top platforms for native.

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