iCloud, the new cloud computing platform from Apple – and the replacement for many MobileMe features – isn't set to fully launch until this fall. But this week, Apple rolled out a limited version of iCloud for developers, and already, techies are foaming at the mouth.
The UI seamlessly blends elements of OS X Lion and iOS, using iOS-style alert pop-ups, but the look of Lion iCal for example. ICloud will debut at a variety of price points: 5GB of storage a year is free, 10GB of storage costs $20 a year, 25GB costs $40, and 50 GB costs a hundred bucks.
So how does iCloud stack up against competing services from Amazon and Google? Over at Forbes, Brian Caulfield has a pretty good breakdown – "Amazon’s service appears to be the most straightforward, Google’s cloud storage offering is the cheapest, while Apple’s is shaping up to be the one that offers the best integration with your existing devices," Caulfield writes. (For a comparison of the prices on the different platforms, check out this report.)
But that integration, along with the intuitive Apple interface, come at a price. "ICloud is clearly built to keep customers on Apple’s hardware and software," Caulfield writes. "The ultimate promise: write a document on Apple's iWork suite of applications and you’ll be able to access it from any of your other Apple devices, or the Web." Of course, Apple's MO is to keep people in the Apple mindset, from iTunes on down, so longtime users shouldn't be too surprised.
The bigger question is how eager people will be to throw their digital lives up on the cloud. In theory, the cloud is a great idea: All your files, when you want them, no matter what device you've got in your hand. But as evidenced by a recent Amazon outage, folks can be awful quick to freak out when the cloud goes dark. In that way, Apple has two hurdles to cross: Make iCloud accessible and cheap, and also make it bulletproof.
Your next job: Mobile app developer? As market demand surges for apps to run on iOS, Android and whatever operating system will power the next wave of smart devices, companies are facing a dearth of mobile development talent. a website for freelancers, reports comparable demand: In the first quarter of 2011, there were 4,500 mobile developer jobs posted on the site an increase of 101 percent over the number of similar job postings in the same quarter last year. Market watchers say it's the ability to grasp mobile's new usage rules, and not simply the ability to master new programming skills, that separates those with an affinity for mobile development from those who just don't get it. All signs indicate there is a healthy demand for mobile app developers, but that demand isn't translating into widespread offers of full-time jobs on corporate IT teams just yet.
Since Aspen Skiing doesn't consider software development a core competency and can't accommodate a large IT staff, outsourcing mobile development seemed like the most efficient plan at least in the short run which is why the company turned to an outside consultancy to develop its mobile apps. The new hires have core development skills and some knowledge of mobile app development maybe not on a commercial scale, but they've done it in an academic environment as a project. Expertise in the specific APIs and user interface toolkits of major mobile platforms like Google's Android and Apple's iOS is a plus though a lack of such experience wouldn't necessarily mean you have no chance of becoming a successful mobile app developer, experts say. The way people interact with a laptop or a desktop is different than the way they interact with a smart device, says Hap Aziz, director of the Rasmussen College School of Technology and Design, which was among the first universities to launch a curriculum with a specific focus on mobile application design and programming. Learning by doing is the next best approach, and one likely favored by the bulk of existing IT professionals, according to Nick Dalton, owner of 360mind, an application development consultancy specializing in mobile apps.
That early training and exposure established him as a go-to resource once the Apple App Store was announced and the market for mobile app developers took off, enabling him to leave corporate IT and start 360mind. Today, 360mind employs nearly 20 mobile app developers and has moved away from building simple novelty apps to working on corporate initiatives that link both Apple iOS and Android apps to back-end enterprise systems. With no end in sight for the opportunities in mobile development, Dalton says this latest gold rush sends a clear message to fellow developers, system architects and Web designers: In today's global, outsourcing economy, you don't want to be stuck with outdated skills, he says. If you're coming from a multimillion-dollar enterprise server project where every decision takes forever, working on these small, self-contained projects around [mobile devices] is a lot of fun. Higher Ed adds mobile app development to the mix Against a backdrop of surging demand for mobile apps, Rasmussen College is one of the first higher ed institutes to launch a specialized curriculum in mobile App design and programming. Students first learn modern object-oriented programming languages such as Java and C++ and then dive into specific mobile development environments like Google's Android and Apple's iOS.
