The title of this isn\'t shocking but I wanted to just talk about some
things I\'m seeing in the space and why I think it\'s happening.
Xamarin fell off the map
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I don\'t know if you watch for job descriptions but over the past year
there have been less and less Xamarin jobs and more JS focused mobile
jobs. Which brings me to the next thing I\'ve noticed..
React Native is the number one choice for mobile apps?!
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I went to Chain Rect Conf and heard some really [good
talks](https://youtu.be/SYWIk9jFSp4) on the changes that have been going
on in react native. I\'ve also noticed the up tick in jobs wanting this
particular expertise. I think React Native has really grown/is growing
into being the cross platform choice. Even Microsoft has started using
React Native. That\'s making a really big statement to the world. As of
now I see React Native as the Xamarin replacement and can see it being
the number 1 mobile development choice by end of year.
Jetpack Compose is still \"too new\"
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Jetpack Compose has been my personal love over the past year but I think
it\'s not moving fast enough. There is a lot of good potential there and
I\'ll always stand-by that, BUT it is starting to feel a bit like
flutter. Google isn\'t truly pushing for Jetpack Compose to be used in
production applications. If feels more like a nice to have option. If
this doesn\'t change in the next 6-12mo I can see the mobile community
dropping it as a serious option.
Flutter is still around
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Honestly I don\'t really know why anyone is pushing flutter anymore.
It\'s still bulky and the language choice is meh. Dart is very similar
to Kotlin, but you should ask yourself why you would want a new language
v using pre-established languages that work for mobile frontend and
backend like Kotlin and swift. I don\'t see flutter staying around much
longer. It will be yet another abandon google project (as it should be).
Mobile Jobs Market
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If there was ever a time to make a lot of money as a knowledge expert I
think the time is now. This is different than the og mobile app boom.
This is a boom of \"how do we maintain what we have\". I don\'t think
there is as much community knowledge in mobile development because there
have always been different ways of doing it. I think now that it\'s
EXTREMELY clear mobile is going no where there is a push to get people
with those 8-10yrs of experience in to help get things up to the current
standards.
It\'s not easy being in mobile development. Things are always changing
and every year there is a new OS with new things to account for. No
other area of tech is operating on this cadence so if you know what you
are doing you should take advantage and make some good money. (I\'m also
talking to myself right there)
If you are interested in getting started in mobile right now I would say
start with React Native but also study some of the quirks of native
development. If your seasoned like myself I think you should also learn
React Native (if that\'s not already in your toolbox). I\'m not saying
you have to make a big switch YET, but I do feel like that\'s coming
down the line so go ahead and prepare for \"fuck youll web teams\" with
some native knowledge coming soon.