As a web developer, I try to keep a feel for where the web is moving. These days, of course, we hear a lot about mobile development, and it's almost the norm to ask user engaging web sites if they have "an app" for users. According to Pew Internet, as of December 2012, 45% of American adults have a smartphone while only 31% have a tablet meaning roughly 1 in 2 Internet users are likely to be using apps. Not a majority yet, but still, a large enough number that it is something to keep in mind.
For most of the stuff I do for work, there isn't any real need for mobile apps. We've had one or two clients ask about them, but that was years ago, back when mobile was still a "is it a fad or not". While I'm a "geek", I don't have a smartphone (yes, seriously), and I am unlikely to get one anytime soon. I just can't justify the expense as I do not believe in subsidized phones and only do pre-paid at this point, plus I still stubbornly use my cell primarily to just make phone calls. That isn't to say I haven't had a few times I wish I had one, especially while book shopping, but it hasn't been a $300-600 desire. 😉 I use have a tablet, an iPad, but it's an iPad 2 with WI-FI only, so it is only really useful at work, home, and the few places with free WI-FI (which alas, does not include Half Price Books…).
That said I do have something of an interest in mobile development. At this point I guess I'd call it mostly curiosity, much like I initially had when I first started web design long ago. It seems like it could be fun to "play" with. Alas, I'm finding that getting into mobile development isn't nearly as "friendly" as web design or even web application development. Most web application languages allow for coding, developing, and testing locally, regardless of major environment. Windows, Mac, Linux, it's generally all good with few to no differences between them. In my work, I code on a Windows machine, but our servers are Linux, as is my personal hosting. It doesn't matter in terms of my code, it all still works.
Mobile app development seems to be another beast entirely, which I am finding is a bit of a killjoy to my curiosity. First is the dilemma of what platform I'd even develop for. All of my computers are Windows, so I can't do any iOS development for my iPad. I can develop for Android and I think Windows 8, but I don't own anything with either so I can write apps I can't truly test or actually use? I wouldn't throw a website up without thorough personal testing, so I sure as heck wouldn't do it for a mobile app.
Sure, I could something like Adobe Air or PhoneGap to build locally and then deploy to various mobile formats, but again I can't truly test it. I just plain hate Windows 8 so that's out the window. I can't load my app on my iPad from my Windows machine nor can I provision it as a development device without a Mac. I can't load my app on my non-existing Android device to test either. So I can write one, I can do very initial testing, and that's it.
A secondary issue is that, as far as I can tell, you can't easily make an app for yourself with iOS. Android makes it very easy to do a personal app, but then it's back to issue one. With iOS apps though, it seems to be all or nothing for the personal developer. There is an Enterprise program for businesses/organizations for $299/year that allows private app distribution but it requires you to be a real business or organization. I mean can I just put it out as a "development" app and leave it in that state forever, which would then essentially make it a just for me app? The docs left me a bit confused as to whether I'd also have to have the iOS device tethered to the development computer for any use or just for the initial install?
The conclusion I finally came to after my diddling around was that I:
- Need to just give up on the idea of mobile development, at least for the near future
- Buy an inexpensive Mac (oxymoron IMHO) for the pure purpose of developing mobile apps
- Transition away from my iPad to an Android tablet and go Android for my maybe future smartphone, losing anything on my iPad that doesn't have any kind of cross-device data syncing (I'm staring especially hard at you Rovio…)
#3 is tempting primarily because the 8 GB Nexus 4 ($299) is significantly cheaper than a 16 GB iPhone 5 ($649; again, I don't do subsidized phones or cell contracts). Heck, I can toss in the 32GB Nexus 7 ($249) and still come out ahead. For my fiscally responsible and budget-conscious side, this is a very good thing. The cheapest Mac seems to be the MacBook Air, starting at $999. The Mac Mini, starts at $599, but it comes with no monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. Add all that in and the price goes way up. I can probably get the Air used for less, but since I'm doing retail to retail here, we're still at Android being way cheaper.
But I like my iPad. Logically, I know I wouldn't really lose a lot by transitioning, because it is more of a "fun" thing than a "productive" thing, and I can take notes with any mobile device as long as the on-screen keyboard is decent and it has a notes type app (which both due). But I'm not at a place to drop $300 on a phone or another $300 on another tablet. I certainly don't want a fourth computer to putter around on, three is enough. So for now, I'm thinking #1 is for me unless I missed something in my mobile app development explorations?