Mobile application development is a rapidly growing field and has already become multi-billion dollar industry. Mobile app development is picking up both in developed countries as well as in rising developing countries. Companies and businesses strive hard to capture the attention of their customers through innovative and useful techniques and mobile applications are on top on that. That is the reason why the demand for quality mobile app developers is increasing tremendously recently.

What is a Mobile Developer?
Right now mobile application developers are in high demand in the IT world. Most of these developers are fresh generation of techies and engineers. This profession is new hence majority of the developers in this field are recent graduates who have learned themselves the process of mobile app development in their university or college. There are also some software developers who are using their core development skills to make transition into mobile application development.

As a mobile app developer you can work as:-
– Work permanently for a one company as a full time employee.
– Work as a consultant on contract for many companies.
– Work for yourself as a freelancer and market your app development skills straight on the web.

One thing which has been seen in the mobile app developers is that they are very dynamic, energetic and creative individuals with a passion for producing consumer oriented products and apps. These mobile app developers are responsible for creating highly creative and vibrant mobile applications which are also efficient and user friendly. The biggest challenge faced by most mobile app developers is to make mobile apps most user friendly and intuitive and also make them small enough and fast enough so that they can work under the constraints of a small and ever changing platforms with touch screen capabilities.

Role and Responsibilities of a Mobile Application Developer

A mobile application developer designs and develops mobile applications which are useful, innovative and user friendly. Some developers also work on specific languages and concepts to built an application specific to their work requirements. Some mobile app developers have to come up with the creative ideas for apps which could capture user’s interest. Depending on the organization’s requirements, a mobile application developer would have all or some of the following responsibilities:-

– Understanding the customer needs and translating them into mobile application framework and software requirement and specification document.

– Designing mobile applications based on best practices and requirements.

– Working and doing app development on different mobile platforms and developing the application in collaboration with other team members.

– Develop apps according to the latest trends.

– Thoroughly testing the mobile application.

– Providing proper technical and customer support to the clients.

– Writing Documents related to project plan, technical specifications, approach and processes.

Specific Technical Roles of Mobile App Developers:-
Mobile App Developers first decide the overall architecture of the mobile app. They create the UI design of the app as well as work on its back end compatibility. They may also have to develop the mobile apps for all the platforms. Some of the developers have to create a back end information on their own. Generally they do the following work:-

– Development of User Interface (UI) : Mobile app developers have to create UI of the mobile app depending upon for what platform the client want their mobile app. If the client wants an app only on iPhone then Xcode is used and they can use Objective C or Swift as the native language for the tool. If its Android and blackberry then the native language would be Java. Tools for Android are eclipse, netbeans and Android Studio. For Windows they have to use Visual basic and the language C#.

– If the client wants the mobile app for each platform and if they have strict deadlines then hybrid tools are used like titanium which uses JavaScript and popular phonegap.

– For back-end the developers use Adobe Software like Dreamweaver for database creation.

– For projecting backend data on your mobile, many APIs are called and used. The most popular ones and the most secure APIs are REST and RESTFUL architecture. Second one is JSON data and if the developer is good in handling complexities then he can go for SOAP and KSOAP. These API’s are parsed and then projected on to the interface.

Competencies and Skills Required by Mobile App Developers:-

Strong technical and analytical skills are most important for a mobile application developer role. Developers also need to do a lot of market and technology research to come up with innovative and user friendly mobile applications. They should also have good communication skills as the developers have to interact with clients to understand their app requirements thoroughly and then explain the approach and processes which they will follow while doing mobile app development.

Other than communication skills, good interpersonal skills plus a thorough understanding of product, market and customer are must have skills if the developer also has a role to play in the marketing of the app. The developer should have great communication and presentation skills, good analytical skills, ability to comprehend and process the research data, ability to work in teams and technical expertise in the mobile application development.

Conclusion
An mobile application developer is someone who creates, tests and programs applications software for mobiles. Applications are used in almost all type of computer devices from desktop to handheld devices. Mobile application developers are also the minds behind the greatest games, email, chat and social apps which are available today in the smartphone market. Mobile Application developers work in teams to identify ideas and concepts for the public or for a specific need of their client. They apply fresh ideas and create flow charts so that every part of the concept is researched properly. They are expert in certain programming language and know how to use it in a way to create new and usable mobile applications. Mobile application developers might also need to work with graphic designers, data scientists and many software experts to create the applications. Once the mobile app is created they might also have to test the app carefully and fix the bugs before the app is launched in the market.