Mobile devices prove to be a setback for cross-platform software development, but I hope it will be a minor one.  At present, Android totally dominates the mobile market both in terms of hardware and software volume.  As well, mobile devices are overtaking desktops for overall usage as we speak.  But Linux, as open-source-friendly as it is appears to be getting the rub from Google, so where are we?

As Google continues to grumble about not controlling the world, they're leaking details about a new generations of phones not based on Linux, but on their own home-grown operating system (OS), Magenta.  Meanwhile, Apple is doubling down on their proprietary platform with the introduction of Swift, their brand-new shiny programming language.  Microsoft is 10 minutes late with Starbucks while literally trillions of dollars of Android and iOS devices have already graced the market. 

But there are a few rays of promise for a more unified mobile future.  First, cross-platform development has become widely accepted, with several major players, SaaS app store distribution, and even a foundational Apache project, namely, Cordova.  Secondly, OS owners are showing some willingness to embrace that approach: Google's leaks include talks of their own IDE producing code for iOS, etc., Microsoft's collaboration with Xamarin, and new sprouts like Ubuntu choosing a language designed for portability.  Finally, the peace treaty that is EcmaScript 2015 has cause web-browser technology based on HTML5 and JavaScript to explode, fostering a new era of platform-independent frameworks specifically designed for web and mobile.

Those major players have carefully plotted their moves to foster business ties with their suppliers, partners, and consumers alike.  But that's always been their game.  Open, free hardware and operating systems doesn't raise their profit margins: at least they have to sell ads, right?  No, the reality is the US military has been steering their battleships with GPS since 1978. The fact that we could find restaurants based on our location until only recently is simply a matter of control.  This is quite the opposite of the Enlightenment, where wealthy lords freely gave anyone willing and able to learn total knowledge of every subject possible.  The point is: eventually power returns to the people.

For today and tomorrow, I'll be visiting caniuse.com to press the envelope of JavaScript development.  Combined with private and hybrid cloud, I'm seeing modern, scalable infrastructure compatible with legacy systems in the enterprise.  While business is business as usual, the bottom line keeps dropping, making it harder and harder for proprietary players to hold their mobile OS line of business.  They'll have to open up their technology or go the way of Ma Bell.  Just ask them how many land-lines they sell these days...

* Ismail Jones is a freelance web and mobile developer, owner of Azizah Solutions, and software architect at Cerner Corporation.

Views: 76

Comments are closed for this blog post

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Java News Roundup: Spring Framework 7.0, Spring Data, Spring AI, Payara Platform, OpenJDK, JobRunr

This week's Java roundup for November 10th, 2025, features news highlighting: OpenJDK JEPs targeted for JDK 26; the GA release of Spring Framework 7.0; point releases of Spring Data, Spring AI, JobRunr and Jox; the November 2025 edition of Payara Platform; the fifth release candidate of Maven 4.0; and a maintenance release of Micronaut.

By Michael Redlich

KubeCon NA 2025 - Erica Hughberg and Alexa Griffith on Tools for the Age of GenAI

Generative AI technologies need to support new workloads, traffic patterns, and infrastructure demands and require a new set of tools for the age of GenAI. Erica Hughberg from Tetrate and Alexa Griffith from Bloomberg spoke last week at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025 Conference about what it takes to build GenAI platforms capable of serving model inference at scale.

By Srini Penchikala

Presentation: AI-Driven Software Delivery: Leveraging Lean, ChOP & LLMs to Create More Effective Learning Experiences at QCon

Wes Reisz discusses an experiment to deliver a QCon certification using a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture and supervised coding agents (Claude Sonnet/Cursor). He breaks down the 4-week serverless video transcription pipeline, RAG variations (hybrid, graph), and the process of structuring prompts for 95% AI-generated code.

By Wesley Reisz

Code Arena Launches as a New Benchmark for Real-World AI Coding Performance

LMArena has launched Code Arena, a new evaluation platform that measures AI models' performance in building complete applications instead of just generating code snippets. It emphasizes agentic behavior, allowing models to plan, scaffold, iterate, and refine code within controlled environments that replicate actual development workflows.

By Robert Krzaczyński

AWS Introduces Remote Build Cache in ECR to Accelerate Docker Image Builds

Amazon Web Services has announced enhancements to its CodeBuild service, allowing teams to use Amazon ECR as a remote Docker layer cache, significantly reducing image build times in CI/CD pipelines. By leveraging ECR repositories to persist and reuse build layers across runs, organisations can skip rebuilding unchanged parts of containers and accelerate delivery.

By Craig Risi

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service