Skills Required for a Mobile Application Developer

Mobile Application Development

Mobile phones and applications are growing and adjusting with how we communicate and work. Business and technological development has emerged substantially, making mobile application development one of the fastest growing IT careers in IT industry.

Mobile application development process is the set of procedures involved in programming and building software or applications for fast operating handheld devices like smart phones and tablets. It is quite similar to Web application development but one major difference, however, is that mobile applications are often developed particularly to make use of the special functions of a particular device.  For example, a game application developed for an Android platform phone might make use of the phone’s accelerometer.

LEARNING

There is no specific minimum qualification for this career. However, a person looking forward to learn Mobile Application Development is desired have received some sort of computer programming training, either from a school/college or a training center. A bachelor’s degree or an equivalent diploma in Computer Science Engineering is thought to be a strong foundation for this job. Acquaintance with the programming basics is a must, since application development is all about programming and creativity.

Students from a background other than computer science engineering can also learn mobile application development through specialized courses. However, they might require a whole lot of effort in starting from the scratch and getting acquainted with computers and programming.

 REQUIRED SKILLS

Any computer savvy person might be fit to learn how to develop mobile applications but being able to develop mobile apps requires a specific set of skills.

1. Mobile User Interface Designing

The most important aspect of mobile app development is to build an excellent user interface (UI). The UI of any software (or application) is responsible for the interaction between the user and the software.  Some primary elements of UI designing are:

• Positioning of components where the user is likely to expect them.
• Making use of colours.
• Fast loading and operation of the application.
•  Activity Indicators.
• General help and basic tips.

2. Backend Computing

Backend computing may include:

• Database Management
• Security
• Interaction with Hardware
• Memory allocation implementation

3. Programming

Another important skill required to develop mobile applications is the knowledge of programming. Programming as a whole, might include several things :

• Getting hands on some commonly used programming languages like C, C++ and Java.
• Getting familiar with mobile platform Application Programming Interfaces (API) like Apple iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
• Learning web development languages like HTML 5 and CSS.
• Using cross platform mobile suites like Antenna and AMP ( Accounting-Management-Promotion)

4. Business Expertise

Business expertise is a must to stand in the competition. A lot of people may not realize this but business skills also play a critical role in this field.  An example of such a skill could be that a mobile application developer should know how to build an application for optimizing it’s visibility in the list of the available applications of the same category.

FUTURE SCOPE AND OTHER RELATED JOB PROSPECTS

One can explore job opportunities in the following areas:

• Mobile Applications Developer or Engineer.
•  Mobility Architect.
• Mobile UI designer.
• User Experience and Usability expert.

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