Tag Archives: developers

The Implications of Every Flash Developer Being a Mobile Developer

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There’s an article in the Wall Street journal today about the demand and insufficient supply of mobile developers, which is becoming a huge problem for companies as mobile strategy becomes more and more critical. One of the main problems, as the WSJ draws out, is that these mobile platforms are relatively new so it’s tough to find developers with a lot of experience. Many companies are turning to good developers and retraining them as mobile developers to fill demand.

If a software engineer doesn’t have mobile experience, the company has sometimes been willing to spend several weeks training the engineer to work on mobile platforms, Mr. Rosenthal said.

Given the mismatch between supply and demand, many companies say they have no choice but to retrain software engineers in the art of mobile development. In the last year, Major League Baseball’s Internet company MLB.com nearly doubled the number of mobile engineers it has to 19, said MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman.

I thought this article was a perfect complement to the announcement this week of Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, which are focused explicitly on helping Flex developers build applications for mobile devices like iOS, Android, and the PlayBook. There is obviously huge demand for mobile applications, and because of scarce supply and experience, existing developers are going to have to think about how they can gain mobile experience. Flex mobile does a fantastic job of making that learning curve smaller by letting Flex developers use what they already know and providing some key mobile features (like ViewNavigator for managing views, the ActionBar for managing global navigation, etc) so that they can quickly turn out Flex applications for these mobile devices.

If you’re a Flash or Flex developer, then with AIR for mobile devices and Flex 4.5, you’ve got the skills to go out and build applications for the biggest platforms. That’s a huge advantage to you as a developer and for any developer who doesn’t want to get locked into a specific platform. As the chart below shows, there are a lot of people looking for experts in iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, but there are a lot more people who are looking for Flash experts. With this release, you get the best of both worlds.

The Cursor as the Ultimate Game Changer

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It’s rare when I can apply my love of the Sports Guy to my day job but today I can. Bill Simmons had his boss on his podcast to talk about new media. Kind of random for a sports podcast, but hey. One of the things they touch on is the death of the newspapers and what makes the web so great. He had a pretty simple answer – the cursor:

You look at where the internet is today and I don’t think we’ve realized anywhere near the potential of this medium. The uniqueness and the eccentricities and the unique qualities of the cursor and what the cursor can do. It’s not just interactivity. They can create things that the cursor can make really interesting. The NBA trade machine on our website is fantastic. And it’s a unique thing that can’t be in other mediums.

I think he did a great job of nailing why I’m so excited about RIAs. Especially when you abstract “cursor” to anything – touch gestures, mouse clicks, whatever. The medium we have is 1) still at the very early stages and 2) a more interactive medium than we’ve ever had before.

This is why it’s so important to be able to create great looking content. You’ve got a wider audience than you’ve ever had before and tools that help create that unique experience. The key should be to get the most inspirational and creative people in the world thinking about the cursor. They’ve got the canvas but we need to help them with the tools to make their creativity become an interactive reality.

That’s why I’m so glad to be at Adobe. We do design tools. And if we can bring our design community to bear on the development world then we’re going to completely change how people think about this unique medium. It’s why a company like Microsoft, that knows developers, is so desperate to get designers. Both sides matter, but the interactivity of the internet requires design skills to take it to the next level. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with.