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Lucas Santos
19,315 PointsI would like to start developing apps. IOS or Android?
So I want to start developing apps but i'm not sure what to develop for Android or Iphone. I want to give a little bit more info on my situation and maybe someone can point me in the rite direction. I have an IMac and I HATE PC's but I love android's, I myself have an HTC One but literally 75% of everyone I know have IPhone's meaning about 25% of people I do know have Android's.
My current knowledge:
I have been developing websites for 5 years and know HTML, CSS, JQuery pretty well and a good understanding of PHP along with Wordpress Development.
Which leads me to some questions,
Which one do you think I would be better developing for?
Which one is more difficult?
Which one takes more work/time to develop for? (Assuming were making the same app for both)
And which ever one someone advices (Android or IOS) what course should I start on?
2 Answers
Ken Alger
Treehouse TeacherLucas;
I have gone through the Android courses here on Treehouse and really enjoyed them. I have not gone through the iOS track, so I cannot speak to that.
I am in a similar situation with my development environment. I have a PC so developing in the world of iOS is more problematic for me. However I have an iPhone (darn kids keep breaking their phones right before my upgrade). That puts me into developing for Android, which is nice because I have found that I also really enjoy the Java programming language.
In terms of market share, if you take a look at world wide market share data, here or here would lead one to think that, outside the data sample of your group of friends, Android is a pretty safe bet for a developer. That certainly isn't to say anything bad about iOS, one of those articles mentioned that Apple shipped 178 million units in 2014 alone. That's a big market too.
My general thoughts are if you are happy with Android devices, learn to develop for Android. Go through a couple of the courses here on Treehouse for iOS and see what you think of the language for them. Myself I was left with a bad taste for C based languages long ago, probably not rational, but have been hesitant to dive back into that world. Haven't looked at Swift or Objective C at all. Don't let that dissuade you though, take a look and see for yourself.
To try to sell the Android bit even more in terms of Treehouse, start with Java Basics or just jump right into the Android Development track. Tons of great information, the instructors for the course are very knowledgeable in the course(s) and are always around in the forum to answer questions.
Just my lack-of-sleep ramblings. I hope it made some sense. Post back if you have any additional questions.
Ken
Ken Alger
Treehouse TeacherLucas;
Shouldn't matter that you are doing Andriod development on a Mac. They have an SDK for Mac, just make sure your system meets their minimum requirements.
Yes and no. They are different creatures, but in my opinion one of the biggest hurdles for programming in thought process. If you understand that from PHP and/or JavaScript it, I think, makes learning other languages easier.
That is hard to say as I jumped around a bit, and everyone learns at a different pace and has different time availability. I think 6 weeks is not unreasonable but it would take a concerted effort.
Yes. I'm working on a couple projects right now and definitely feel comfortable in doing so. For project features that were not covered in the courses there were plenty of examples of where to go to find assistance. Great courses.
Ken
Lucas Santos
19,315 PointsThanks for all the info Ken. Iv decided to develop for Android. Iv just finished the first course for java and that teacher is amazing .. he really puts things in perspective and answers questions he knows people will have as he explaines. Think I'll have fun learning java, thanks again Ken!
Ken Alger
Treehouse TeacherKen Alger
Treehouse TeacherOkay, after rereading my post it is a bit of a push towards the Android track. So, perhaps we should hope for some iOS insight, perhaps from Amit Bijlani, the Treehouse iOS instructor, or other folks like Stone Preston will put in their two cents worth.
Ken
Lucas Santos
19,315 PointsLucas Santos
19,315 PointsI see thanks for the reply Ken. So the way I see it if I want to develop for Android I would need to use the language "JAVA" where as if I wanted to develop for IOS i would need to learn "Objective-C". Well I did read up a little bit on both languages and I think I can learn JAVA better. And looked into a little bit of both courses, both teachers are hands down AMAZING but I feel like I understand the teacher at the Android Development course a little bit better. Now I do have some last questions,
Because I have an IMAC does that make developing for Androids more difficult or that does not matter?
I know that Javascript and JAVA are two different languages but because I know Javascript do you think that will make the JAVA learning process easier?
About how long did it take you to go through the Android Development Course?
And for my last question of curiosity, After you have finished the Android Development Course here at Treehouse how comfortable were you building your OWN apps. meaning ideas you had yourself and actually went about building it?