How Difficult is it to Learn Mobile Development?

Are you curious about learning mobile development but worried it might be too hard? Of course, the difficulty that comes with learning a new skill is somewhat subjective. The challenges of learning mobile development depend on factors likeexperience with other programming languages, time dedicated to learning mobile development, and the kinds of projects you hope to learn how to develop.

No matter your current schedule or comfort level with mobile development, plenty of tools are available to help make learning more accessible than you might think.

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.

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning Mobile Development?

Mobile development is often challenging for beginners because learning the languages requires familiarity with advanced programming skills. This challenge is compounded by mobile programming languages being less versatile than some of their web development counterparts, making it difficult to rely on existing skills.

How Does Learning Mobile Development Compare to Other Fields?

Mobile development represents a good-sized niche subset of web development. This large market share is because most dedicated mobile development uses specialized programming languages, such as Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. Thus, most people who receive mobile development training will become already familiar with basic programming skills and will instead be deciding how to expand on their repertoire of coding knowledge. Prospective students interested in advanced programming training will want to consider some of the different fields and languages they can learn.

Individuals may wish to expand their programming options and learn front end web development skills. Learning such skills includes HTML/CSS and JavaScript and its associated libraries like React and jQuery. Front end development concerns itself with the programming languages that inform a web browser how to display a webpage and how to build interactive elements into that display. As a result, front end programming is responsible for all web application elements that users see and interact with. Frequently, an element of front end web development is applied to mobile development, but mobile development languages are far more versatile in their stereotypical environments.

The alternative to front end development is back end development programming, which utilizes languages like Python, Ruby on Rails, and dedicated JavaScript libraries like Node.js that handle the hidden infrastructure that allows a webpage to run. These are the elements of a webpage that users won’t have access to and perform vital functions such as connecting to servers, querying databases, or running certain kinds of code. Learning languages like Python will also give students a chance to learn more advanced data science and machine learning skills, which are also cutting-edge parts of modern web development.

Finally, students may combine these skills to become Full Stack Web Developers, expert programmers who handle both the front end and the back end operation of web applications. The path of a Full Stack Developer requires significantly more training. Still, the languages that students will learn are incredibly versatile. Future Web Developers may transfer their skills to other professional programming positions since learning a back end language doesn’t preclude coders from finding a job as a Front End Developer.

Individuals interested in learning about front end development, back end development, or full stack development should consult Noble’s Learn pages to discover more about these career paths.

Is it Worth Learning?

Students may be discouraged from learning mobile development skills that may be tricky, even for experienced programmers. Beginners shouldn’t be discouraged. Though not the most transferable, these skills are in high demand and only stand to become more critical as mobile devices play more significant roles in our daily lives. Most experts agree that the skills are learnable. Individuals will need to honestly assess at the start of their training if learning mobile development, rather than more universal programming languages, is right for them. However, despite all these challenges, learning mobile development skills is a great way to prepare for a future career and set yourself up for success in a rapidly changing digital world.

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.