Learn how to build and optimize programs for mobile platforms with our guide on mobile development. This high-demand field is integral to most industries, providing a wealth of potential career paths for those equipped with the necessary skills.
Key Insights
- Mobile development focuses on creating and optimizing software applications for mobile devices, a vital skill in the current digital landscape.
- With nearly 88% of smartphone usage spent on apps, mobile development is a primary focus for many industries, including mobile gaming and digital marketplaces.
- Mobile development skills are essential for working within the evolving world of the internet of things, integrating our phones and tablets with the devices and objects we interact with daily.
- While the skills needed for mobile development can be challenging to learn, they are attainable with dedication and the right training.
- Before learning mobile development, it's recommended to have intermediate programming skills and a clear understanding of your development goals and preferred platforms, such as iOS or Android.
- Training courses and bootcamps, such as those offered by Noble Desktop, can provide comprehensive, hands-on training to those wishing to pursue a career in mobile development.
Mobile development is a subfield of programming that focuses on how programs are built and optimized for mobile platforms. In the US, most web-related interactions happen through mobile applications, making them a vital part of most people’s daily lives. You might worry that mobile development will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning mobile development and what you should study to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills.
What is Mobile Development?
As of 2021, there were as many as 6.4 billion smartphones worldwide. For smartphone users, The vast majority of smartphone users engage with their device using their apps–up to 88% of total use. Mobile applications are quickly becoming the most common way we interact with the digital space, and this shifts virtually every industry, company, and institution to prioritize using mobile applications in their branding and marketing strategies. In addition, adjacent industries, such as the mobile gaming industry, are becoming massive sources of revenue, meaning that more and more companies are moving towards mobile development as a primary, rather than a secondary, focus.
Learning mobile development skills involves learning general programming principles and tools, and languages explicitly designed for popular mobile devices. Both iOS and Android devices take advantage of proprietary programming languages built from the ground up to be optimized for those devices. Mobile development differs from general programming in that it emphasizes how applications can be designed to run optimally on any mobile device since there is a world of difference between an iPhone 12 and a Surface Tablet. Mobile Developers will be tasked with learning all the skills required to ensure that all of the application's necessary features are functional and easy to utilize regardless of who is accessing the application and on what device it is being accessed.
Read more about what mobile development is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with Mobile Development?
One of the most compelling reasons to learn mobile development skills comes from the fact that the technological infrastructure is constantly improving. What was unheard of five years ago has become the technical default, and developers are constantly improving the hardware and software associated with mobile devices. This evolution makes mobile application development an incredible specialization for developers who want to be on the cutting edge as new industries and practices emerge. Whether you are interested in designing new mobile games, essential accessibility services, or working within newly emerging digital marketplaces, mobile app development skills will significantly boost your potential.
Mobile application development is also an excellent skill set for working within the developing world of the internet of things. Our phones and tablets are becoming more directly integrated with the devices and objects we interact with daily. From QR code readers to digital assistants to medical alert technology in wearables, mobile devices serve many seemingly mundane but still vital functions in our everyday lives. While developers looking to work in this field will need to learn other advanced programming skills, students with a background in mobile development will have a much easier time creating complex applications meant to extend the reach of the mobile device.
Is Mobile Development Easy to Learn?
Mobile development skills are specialized programming skills that can be challenging even for experienced programmers. Yet, most programmers agree that these skills are learnable with a bit of work. While it is an incredibly useful set of skills to pick up, they aren’t the most versatile, so students won’t be able to draw on their existing knowledge as quickly, nor will they be able to apply it to new situations.
What to Know Before Learning Mobile Development
Learners looking to learn mobile development should understand intermediate programming skills and have at least a background knowledge of the projects they plan to complete.
Intermediate Programming Skills
While there are no technical prerequisites to learning mobile development skills, learning a language like Swift is possible for the first programming language, but there may be better choices. Often, knowing different languages will make learning Swift easier. Most experts agree participants in a mobile development course should be familiar with the fundamental aspects of programming–how to compile and debug code–and they strongly recommend that potential students know other languages. Knowing additional languages ensures participants can read the syntax and grammar of the language they are learning.
Platforms and Goals
Individuals will also want to research the kinds of specific skills that they want to learn to make a more informed choice about the training they will receive. Since each platform runs on its specialized programming language, future students should research to determine if they want to focus on developing iOS, Android, or both applications. These languages don’t overlap, so picking the right one for your goals will be an essential first step.
Key Insights
- Mobile development is an in-demand career field focusing on designing and developing software applications for dedicated mobile devices.
- While there are no technical requirements for learning mobile development, it is strongly recommended that future students be comfortable with computer programming before enrolling in a mobile development course.
- Prospective students will also want to research the different mobile platforms they can learn to develop applications to make a more informed decision about which programming language they want to learn.
- Whether individuals want to learn prerequisite skills or dive into mobile development training, Noble Desktop offers comprehensive live online and in-person training options to help students succeed.
Learn Mobile Development with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Students looking to learn mobile development skills will need a decent amount of focused training. They will need to learn programming basics, web development programming languages, and specific programming languages built for mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. However, no matter your level of experience, Noble Desktop has a mobile development course that fits your needs. Whether you are an experienced programmer or you need to learn HTML/CSS, Noble Desktop offers individual bootcamps and career development classes that can help you on your way to becoming a skilled Mobile Developer. Experienced instructors teach Noble’s classes, bringing expert-level web and mobile development knowledge. Learners can take Noble’s classes in-person at Noble’s Manhattan campus or online in private digital classrooms. Even online, class sizes are kept small so that students aren’t competing with each other for their instructor’s attention. Plus, anyone enrolling in a Noble training course will have an opportunity to retake the class, for free, at any point within a calendar year, giving prospective students peace of mind. It allows beginners even more chances to get hands-on mobile development skills.
Individuals with prior coding experience may wish to enroll in Noble’s iOS App Development Bootcamp. This class will teach members how to work with Apple’s Xcode code editing program and their Swift programming language to build optimized applications on mobile iOS devices. Students will learn how to build interactive swipe and touch screen elements and how to add assets to the application, its launch screen, and its presence on the App store. By the end of the class, individuals will develop and post their applications to the App store. They will also understand how the mobile development process works from start to finish (people should be aware that posting applications to the app store require a paid Apple account, which every participant will be required to sign-up for to complete the course).
Those with less coding experience but still want to learn the necessary skills to work as mobile developers will want to consider enrolling in Noble’s Full Stack Development Certificate program. This program doesn’t focus specifically on mobile development. Future coders wishing to specialize in that field may need additional training, but learning full stack development skills is integral to becoming a successful and well-rounded developer. In this class, students will learn how to code web pages in HTML/CSS and JavaScript, languages that mobile developers use to build non-proprietary versions of their applications. In addition, students will learn essential JavaScript libraries and how to develop and maintain the infrastructure upon which applications operate. This career-focused course provides participants professional development training, including one-on-one career mentorship and portfolio development workshops. Pair this training seminar with Noble’s iOS Development Bootcamp for further specialization in mobile development.