- Fast and Furious .NET Programming
- Explosive Demand
- Healthy Competition
Healthy Competition
A while back, Sun released the Java Mobile Edition and the Wireless Toolkit, which enables Java programmers to create programs for mobile devices that support the Mobile Device Profile (MIDP), which is a hardware abstraction standard for mobile devices. The Wireless Toolkit (WTK) ships with a cellphone emulator that was hot when it first came out but now is getting a bit stale. Microsoft has Windows CE, upon which PocketPC and SmartPhone run, and .NET to write programs for mobile devices. The Visual Studio 2005 product that I saw ships with a variety of cellphone and mobile device emulators that are steps ahead of the WTK emulator, and a debugger that interacts directly with programs running on an external mobile device.
Sun and Microsoft are historic competitors continually vying for developer attention. Sun is not going to roll over and give the mobile computing development space up to Microsoft. The companies will compete, and more competition will most probably result in better, cheaper programming products from both camps.
Just as in the 1990s, when more powerful PCs became cheaper, today the mobile hardware is getting better and cheaper. You can buy a Nokia 3660, a mobile device that comes with a color display, a phone, a camera, video, and the usual assortment of games from T-Mobile, for $149 after rebate. Or, for $109 (after promotions) from Amazon, you can get a Motorola MPx200 SmartPhone that ships with a mobile version of Internet Explorer and a modem that enables you to connect to your PC. We're talking a lot of mobile technology here for relatively little money.
The stage is set. The market for mobile computing applications is high growth, effective competition exists among both hardware and software technology manufacturers, and the development tools are becoming more powerful and easier to use. More people using mobile devices will increase the demand for applications on those devices.
And this is where the geeks come in: As we all know, when it comes to creating cool programs for cool hardware, nobody can do it like a geek.