Apple Inc.’s Charles Du had two pieces of career advice for the Loyola Marymount University business students and others gathered at the College of Business Administration to hear about the future of mobile and personal computing.
First, “If you write one useful app, you can instantly change the world.” Second, if you master iOS — the mobile operating system used by iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices — you can have your pick of jobs.
Du is Apple’s mobile solutions consultant to western U.S. education institutions, and a pioneer in mobile application development. Before joining Apple, he spearheaded the design and implementation of NASA’s first iPhone app. With over 10 years of experience in mobile technology, he has expertise in app design, mobile device management and education outreach.
One of the key strengths of mobile devices, Du told the group, is that they are good at getting relevant information to people in real time. “When you see an overflow of people, there is a lack of capacity — there is a lack of real-time information,” Du said. All an ambitious person has to do is find one of those capacity problems and come up with the right solution.
For example, he said, a few years ago at the University of Iowa, there was a shortage of washers and dryers in the laundry rooms on campus, and students were running up and down stairs to check for available machines. One of the students developed an app that let students check the availability of washers and dryers from their mobile phones. Voila! Problem solved.
“There are 7 billion people on the planet and there will be 5 billion mobile devices in use by the end of this year,” Du said. Great changes can come about by finding a way to fill an information gap and deliver it to people with mobile devices.
But to develop that app, you have to be able to write a program in iOS. Even if you don’t have “the great idea” yet, a mastery of iOS could mean a job and job security. “There is a huge shortage of iOS developers,” Du told the group.
Du gave his multimedia presentation as part of CBA’s Center for Asian Business Y.B. Min lecture series.