The most important current trend in the software development world is, without a hint of a doubt, the mobile frontier, and in particular, the rise of the smartphone and the touch tablet.

When I started my career as a developer, back in 1996, I was writing web applications running on Netscape Navigator 3 and Internet Explorer 3. The world was a very different place back then, particularly in this industry. I used HoTMetaL Pro and Notepad to code my pages, as well as the editor bundled with Netscape Navigator.

Since then I have written applications for both the web and the desktop, using technologies such as Classic ASP, VBScript, ASP.NET, PHP, C+\+, Ruby on Rails, Django, etc. For my editing needs, I have migrated to EditPlus, later TextMate, now Vim.

But without any doubt, the most important moment in recent technological history was the introduction of the iPhone in January 2007. The impressive growths of iOS, Android, and other platforms has completely transformed the landscape of software engineering, while at the same time opening new possibilities for companies. The rise of the iPhone was followed by the explosion of the Android platform, and in all that turmoil, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile have lost their leadership, even if they still remain relevant in the current landscape.

This new panorama has a darker side, one already known in the desktop development world: platform fragmentation.