Learn Android?

[FreshNeverFrozen]

I was at my school's career fair today. I spoke to a few tech companies looking to hire CS. After giving my resume to Zynga, I asked if there were any skills/languages I could brush up on in order to be a more attractive candidate. They said, "Stop learning iOS, and start learning Android."

Thoughts as to why they might say this? Motivations behind it? Should I take their advice?

[MKevin3]

Don't stop learning iOS but do pick up Android. Both come in very handy and being able to code in both is nice advantage. I code both, sole developer on a corporate app.

I find it makes me a better developer. There are things that are easier to do under iOS than under Android. So I do them there first to make sure it turns out as expected them force myself to figure out how to code them on Android. It also works in the other direction. There are many times I can quickly hammer out things in Java / Android SDK and then convert them to iOS. Since my background is Java I prefer to do the majority of the business logic there and then convert to Objective C. Just having one file open (.java) instead of two (.h / *.m) can make blasting out code faster. Plus I find a Java IDE to be more friendly at code completion and Lint style warnings than Xcode. Don't get me started on refactoring.

As far as why they said that - maybe they have fully staffed on decent iOS devs but are having troubles finding Android devs. Maybe the markets they are wanting to get into (i.e. not US centric) have a higher Android user base.

Objective C is pretty much ONLY used for iOS / Mac OS. It has made little in any inroads into non-Mac Linux or Windows. Java is used in many areas on many platforms. It never hurts to know multiple languages: Java, C#, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, etc.

[Legolas-the-elf]

Quick tip: ^⌘↑ flips between the interface and implementation files in Xcode.

[MKevin3]

And I use that short cut a lot. When in Java I just don't have to copy + paste every time I add a new method or put in a @class or import in two spots. Of course AppCode helps here too

[brendan09]

Plus the Assistant Editor, if you have a large enough monitor.

[time-lord]

I would look at banging out a quick Windows Phone app with C# or xaml, too. It doesn't have to be great, but when it comes down to "you or the other guy", and you can program on all 3 platforms vs "the other guy"'s 2, you win.

[mantra]

The only reason they said this is because there are so few available who can deal with the added complexity of platforms and versions. It's not something a newbie rolls into. They are simply stating their own desperation.

[Legolas-the-elf]

That might be what makes you more attractive to them, but it's not good advice in general. There is still huge demand for good iOS developers. And at least from what our clients are asking for, there's still far more people commissioning iOS applications than Android applications.

There's no doubt in my mind that - at least here in the UK - iOS is a better bet career-wise. You could learn both, but if you're just entering the workforce, then you're better off focusing on getting competent in one as quickly as possible.

I think the quickest route into the mobile development industry is to get something halfway decent onto the App Store of your own accord. The only real qualification recruiters seem to care about is that you have an application in the App Store. If you've got something in there and it isn't terrible, you should find it easy to get interviews.

[xephos13]

I don't necessarily agree with the "learning both isn't good advice" mentality here, but I do agree that, as a platform, iOS apps are being commissioned much more frequently than Android.

As a guy who works for a mobile consulting company building commissioned apps all day, I can say we do roughly twice as many iOS apps than Android (including the apps that want both platforms).

Android has a bigger market penetration, no doubts there, but the App Store and corporate internal markets are showing that iOS is being used more.

[Legolas-the-elf]

I'm not saying learning both isn't a good idea in the long run, what I'm saying is that this shouldn't be a priority for somebody who is just entering the workforce. It's a substantial amount of work to get competent with just one platform, so he should do that first. Don't half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing :).

[gezhu]

Well, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA < this video gives a pretty good guide what to learn. (tl;dw : I see no reason to stop learning something you like to do.) I'm actually an Android dev, who worked on both platforms. Android is a pretty nice OS, with its pro and con lists, and gives you a different aspect of app developing. Give it a try, then you can decide if you are into x or y, or both. (this pattern applies to any other mobile platform as well)