Posts Tagged ‘Android’

Windows is quickly getting replaced by iOS and Android on the Web

Friday, December 9th, 2011

As a web developer or web designer, you have to mindful of who your audience is when you are putting up a new web site or web application.

Back in the 1990’s when I started, you had to consider which web browser but you were pretty safe to assume that people would be visiting your website on a desktop computer and 95% of the time, it was Windows.

… Things have changed and will continue to change.

Check out what a well known hedge fund analyst is saying – Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners told CNBC:

The explosion of mobile platforms, particularly iOS and Android, means that Windows will account for less than 50% of all Internet-connected devices in 2011.

Now that doesn’t mean 50% of the people visiting your site will be using iOS or Android … at least not yet. But it does speak of a powerful trend that will not stop. That trend is toward smartphones, tablets and the death of the desktop. Since Windows on the smartphone and tablet is a non-starter, I think as a web application developers, we have to see Android and iOS as being the future.

What does that mean for PHP developers?

I think PHP programmers are going to have understand the new front end … the mobile device. As such, PHP’rs are really going to have to get into the client-side technologies because they have an impact how we write PHP code. I’m thinking:

- HTML 5
- CSS 3
- Javascript
- JSON
- Jquery

… You better understand how these technologies work with PHP if you want a job (or contracts) as a PHP programmer.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

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Posted in Advanced PHP, Android, Javascript, PHP Jobs, iOS | No Comments »

Android Market Share Doubles, iOS Drops In Q3

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Google Android logo

Hey Nerds!

This just out: Android Market Share Doubles, iOS Drops In Q3

Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market was 52.3% for Q3, double what it was a year ago, according to fresh data from Gartner. Apple’s iOS dropped on a year over year basis to 15% market share for Q3.

The culprit for Apple’s drop? The iPhone 4, of course. People were waiting for the iPhone 5, or as it turned out, the iPhone 4S.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-market-share-2011-11#ixzz1dmzpfS6Y

I’m no Android fan-boy and I happen to like Apple products a lot – I think the the Mac Air is the greatest computer ever made. But as a practical web designer and web programmer, you have to be mindful of what’s going on in the real world. It is clear that Android is and will be the dominate player.

So web designers and developers (programmers) have to learn HTML 5 and CSS 3 since they both run fine on Android and iOS.

Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

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Posted in Android, iOS | No Comments »

Android and iOS Development – the easy way!

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Hi,

I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately that are kinda like this:

Stef, I want to learn how to create apps for iPhones, iPads and Android devices … can you teach me!

Well the good news is that I am looking into this now. The bad news is that I don’t have anything ready … yet. That said, I do have some useful information and strategies for people who want to jump on this bandwagon quickly and easily.

Listen up …

iOS is for iPhones and iPads

That means you need to learn objective C … if you want to have total control over the iOS device. More on that later.

Google’s Android – on phones and tablets.

That means you need to learn a subset of Java (basically stripped down Java) if you want to have total control of the devices.

About objective C and Java

I don’t know much about objective C (but I’ve heard things …) but I do know a lot about Java. In both cases, many junior level PHP programmers might have a hard time with these languages because they require a deeper understanding of OOP.

The solution: HTML 5 and CSS3

The great thing about mobile applications, is that we expect that most of the time, they will be connected to the Internet – we assume that the apps will interact online at some point if not all the time.

This opens up the possibility of moving some of the heavy lifting over to the server where PHP can take care of biz for you. This MAY minimize the need to have to go down to the core of the device, forcing you to use Java or Objective C … depending on the device of course.

In the meantime, you can use HTML 5’s nifty new ability for local storage (of files,) to handle the times when a smart-phone is NOT online. How often does that happen …?

Stefan Mischook
killerphp.com

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Posted in Beginners PHP Articles | No Comments »

Should Programmers be developing for iOS, or is Android the better option?

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

As you all know, iOS based devices:

- iPhone
- iPad
- iPod touch

… have a huge user base and application development for these devices has been, and probably will continue to be, a good area to be involved in. That said, how about Google Android based devices?

Well, the Android user base is growing very fast:

Gartner explained in an official statement, “In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android expanded rapidly in the second quarter of 2010, overtaking Apple’s iPhone OS to become the third-most-popular OS in the world.”

So it seems to me that smart developers will look to working on the Android platform because:

1. Android’s huge growth in market share
2. There are a lot of apps still to be built, before Android’s application collection matches iOS’s.

Business Application Development … is where the money is at!

I also think Android will become the mobile OS of choice for mobile business use because of its’ open nature. This compared to iOS, which is very controlled by big brother .. oh, I mean big Apple.

Apple will change its’ tune

Apple now has a vice-like choke hold on their iOS platform … this I think will change in time, because of the pressure exerted by Android. I’m pretty sure about this (73.5% probability) because Apple has already caved in a little:

http://www.killersites.com/blog/2010/apples-allows-flash-created-apps-to-run-on-iphone-and-ipad/

Stefan Mischook

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Posted in Mobile | 3 Comments »

 

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