My iPhone Development

Many people wonder from time to time, which programming language is the most popular? This questing is especially important to college students and young professionals, planning to pursue a career in software development. Well, considering that software development industry is so diverse, rapidly growing, and spread all across the world, it isn’t easy to determine which programming language is the hottest at any given time. Besides, software development trends change very rapidly, so it’s important to see the dynamic: is a particular programming language popularity on the rise?

There are several approaches to measuring programming language popularity. For those college students I already mentioned, the most obvious approach is to look through job listings and see which language skills have the highest demand. You can also ask around, talk to successful software developers, read online about current trends in the software development industry, and so on. But it might be even more beneficial to use a more objective tool to somehow quantify the popularity of different programming languages.

One example of such popularity-measuring tool is the TIOBE index, which takes into account multiple search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and even platforms like Wikipedia. Every month, a list of the hottest programming languages is complied, showing ratings for each language in terms of percentage. You can also see the change in popularity since the previous month. For example, TIOBE report for July 2012 indicates that Objective-C is now more popular than C++. This, of course, is due to the ever-growing demand for iOS application development. Other interesting trends include a decline in Java and PHP. Perhaps it’s too early to judge based on one month worth of data. But if you follow these reports for several months, you might really spot some interesting trends.

The iPhone’s home screen looks pretty much the same today as it did in 2007, when Apple initially introduced it. While there isn’t anything wrong with the iPhone’s home screen, it may start to feel somewhat outdated. On the other hand, the look of iPhone’s home screen became so familiar, recognizable, and almost symbolic over the years. Perhaps changing it would go against Apple’s fundamental vision.

Of course, Android’s customizable home screen with all those widgets is very practical. However, some Android users go a bit over-the-top with customization and widgets and might end up with a busy, crowded home screen. It all comes down to personal preference. Some users like a clean, minimalist design, while others prefer having as many tools in one place as possible.

Interesting to note, Windows Phone also has a highly customizable home screen. Most users and even critics seem to like Microsoft’s idea of customizable ’tiles’. In fact, Microsoft took it a step further and came up with a new way to display all those numerous app icons. The bottom line is, Windows Phone’s home screen looks fresh and very different from both iPhone and Android. We’ll have to wait and see, perhaps a change is coming to iPhone’s home screen in the near future.

We cannot hide from progress. The more people download apps or browse sites with their mobile phones, the more all these should be adjusted to user’s feelings and perceptions, the so-called “mobile user experience”. In other words, it means the way a typical user operates while working with an application or surfing the Net AND the general satisfaction that he receives during this interaction.

Thinking of MUE as a whole, with its psychological orientation, will probably get us puzzled. Yet, it can be subdivided into several basic components:

• functionality,
• content,
• design,
• user input,
• usability
• and feedback.

Functionality has to do with tools that allow users to complete tasks and achieve their goals.

Content is the types of material in different formats (text, images and video) that provide information.

Design shows the visual presentation of mobile, including graphic design, branding and layout.

User Input is associated with the effort required to enter data, which should be minimized on mobile devices.

Usability is the measure of how well design, content and other elements work together to help users accomplish their goals.

Feedback comprises the means for attracting the user’s attention and displaying important information.

There is much hope that taking MUE into account is the key of a deeper understanding of user friendly web development.