Mobile Dev Landscape is Changing

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

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?!

I went to Chain Rect Conf and heard some really good talks 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"

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

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

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.