Background: Coming up on 6 YOE, mostly in full-stack web. I've done some mobile work on-and-off, first with iOS (Swift) and then with cross-platform in React-Native. I'd like to re-commit to learning either iOS or Android, but it's been long enough since I took a serious look at the landscape from of either that I'm interested in knowing what the value of either is head-to-head in 2020.
- If I pivot into either, as gig or FT work, which has the better job market?
- How useful are Swift/ObjC/iOS design patterns outside of app development? Do any major enterprise companies even still use ObjC?
- How useful are Kotlin/Java/Android design patterns outside of app development? How extensible is Java usage in Android to Java usage in other platforms?
- What are the best (free) resources for picking up either? I know the Stanford course for iOS is the gold standard for beginning with iOS; is there something similar for Android? (i.e., course material that assumes you know the basics of app development, and has sprinkled in some tips that would be novel even for more advanced developers)
Before commenting "Learn both" or "pick what aligns with what you use on a day-to-day" -- neither of these points are relevant for me at this time, I'm just looking for what has the better combination of 1.) pleasant to work with and has better community support, and 2.) what will age better over time, not only domestically but hypothetically in an international / remote-friendly job market.
YOE: 6
TC: 260k
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I've done both iOS and Android I prefer iOS, ecosystem feels way more polished to me.
I feel like since COVID, in some ways it's gotten easier. My theory is that, because there's naturally a more limited number of data points you can gather remotely vs. in person, questions I've been asked have been more straightforward and easier to quantitatively evaluate.
If a question is originally designed to be intentionally ambiguous and strike up more of a dialogue, it's not as good of a question during COVID because the process of disambiguating and debugging remotely takes much more time and is ultimately not efficient. This is just an observation based on personal experience, however.