The iPhone Recruiter

Once per quarter I will publish my results.

Thoughts from the iPhone Recruiter:

What happens if you are using tethering on your Verizon iPhone and a call comes in?

Of the 1000′s of iPhone Apps that are meant to be used…WHILE you are on the phone, how will those work on the Verizon iPhone?  Example: Talking to someone and trying to give them directions on a web-enabled map

How many AT&T iPhone users will switch to the Verizon iPhone because, and I say this from personal experience, AT&T’s coverage sucks?

Verizon is already sold out of the iPhone.  They sold more pre-orders than any phone previously released.  While this will keep iPhone on top in terms of total units sold.  Android is a juggernaut and will eventually outpace the iPhone in total units. 

What does this mean for the iPhone Developer?  Learn to develop for both platforms.  I have previously stated my philosophy of  cross platform mobile development (Develop on the iPhone first).  I still stand by that as a best practises.

Each month I track the number of job posting for iPhone developers on Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com. 

iPhone Development – Feb 2011

Indeed.com – 7,260
SimplyHired – 6,588

For those of you that have been following this blog (very few)…  This is an example site that I am building with about 1/2 day per week over the next few weeks.  Today I secured myself a Twitter Handle @iPhoneRecruit  (someone else had and abandoned @iPhoneRecruiter…but it was not available).

Can you run a recruiting firm on one day per week?  The answer is: No you can’t.  However, I can create the framework for a brand with a few hours of work. The infrastructure and brand that will allow the firm to grow.  I already have a database of thousands of iPhone, iPad and iOS Developers. For those interested, the database was built over several month using Broadlook Diver on the openweb,  Broadlook Eclipse on user forums and Broadlook Profiler on company websites.  This database was built as a way to test Broadlook’s data-mining products; a by-product.

A big shout out to my friends at the WorldBridge Partners.  I had a blast presenting to the group.  It was great to have dinner with Alan Schonberg, Founder of Management Recruiters.

The idea of this blog is about transparency as I create a new business, what works and what doesn’t.

Currently, iOS is the most flexible operating system to develop on.  This is undisputed.  The question that developers and product managers are asking is which platform to develop on first?  Why?

While yes, I am the iPhone Recruiter, however, I am the also the Chief Software Architect and Product Manager on a cross platform mobile application.   From my experience, here are some quick thoughts.

If you want the hottest application that pushes the limits of features, the iPhone/iOS is the logical choice.  However, this is a small percentage of the applications out there.  What about a middle of the road application?

If you are looking to develop quickly, iOS wins again. One set of hardware and a standardized interface.  There is a drawback here.  Since the iPhone has the most capable platform. I have seen developers get lost in “feature-creep”.  While a bunch of great features may be great for a killer iPhone application.  Good luck porting it to the Blackberry.

Market size?  As of this writing, the iPhone would get the gold medal.  While Android is catching up and will probably surpass the iPhone.

So am I saying that your should always develop for the iPhone first?  Actually, No.  The iPhone wins in every category, however, if you are building an enterprise enabled business application, the Blackberry is still king.  If you must pick one device.  Consult marketing, not development.

To sum it up, here is the development philosophy that has worked for me in multi-platform mobile application development.

1. First spec out your project. Have a solid understanding of the workflow, concept, functions and interface.

2. Choose which platforms you want to develop for.  For me, we go cross-platform with iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows mobile and Palm pre.

3.  Pick the form factors you will develop for.  iPhone, iPad, 7 inch tablet, etc.

4.  Pick which variations of the devices you will develop for.  Not an issue with iPhone, but there are serious differences with Android hardware.  Blackberry’s also have a dramatically different screen sizes.

5.  Get familiar with each of the development environments, before developing on any of them.

6.  Reality check.  Based on your project specifications, which features will have to be left out on the less capable systems?   In robustness, I rank them as iOS, Windows, Android, Palm, Blackberry.

7. Develop in the order of iPhone, Windows, Android, Palm, Blackberry.

8.  For version 1.0, try to standardize your features and even your interface across all the devices.

With the advent of the iPad, there are still over 100,000 applications that work on the iPhone, but are not native to the iPad.  Sure they work, but they are not optimized to work with the larger form factor.  Developers are still questioning first whether they should convert to the iPad and then and then scrambling to get it done.  As of this writing, LinkedIN still does not have an iPad native LinkedIn Application.  That is sad.

For developers, there is a specialty niche here to be filled.  I am starting to see conversion opportunities.  Companies looking for specialists in moving applications from the smaller iPhone form factor to the larger iPad form factor.  In talking with Candidates and Companies, here are some observations.

1. Larger form factor developers need to have a better eye for the graphics.  On iPhone size, the screen size is very limited and graphics are kept to a minimum.  On the iPad, you have space to be more creative.
2. Don’t just blow up the interface.  Companies are looking for re-writes.  Take the basic application,  make it better and make it fit the bigger space.
3. If you are doing project work and you have done some form factor conversations, make sure you specify it on your resume.
4. After the Consumer Electronics show, it is clear that 2011 will be the year of the tablets.  Develop for the iPad first.  It is the richest development environment of all the tablets.  Once you have your iPad version, then look at what features and functionality you will have to cut out for the Android and forthcoming Blackberry tablets

I have been tracking the number of iPhone developer positions being advertised over the last few years.  This was part of a webinar series to “Dominate a new recruiting desk”.  As part of the exercise, I measure the job opening in a series of keywords.  “iPhone developer” was one of them.  Here are the results!