Every now and then, when the important discussions over video games, board games, TV, and movies comes to a close, my friends and I briefly chat about other life-pertinent issues such as our careers. During one such conversation, a  friend wondered the obligatory "What next?" question, more specifically, "If I want to change my career, I'm not certain what programming skills I should focus on."

Since my friend has a history of web development, I answered, "Continue working on your expertise in PHP and JavaScript. Web application development isn't going anywhere soon."

A pause. A pursed lip. "I'm not so certain about that, not with all of the mobile applications out there."

Others certainly agree with him: No more than a few weeks later, <a title="Wired Magazine" href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1"><em>Wired</em> magazine</a> wrote its infamous article about how the <a title="The Web is dead" href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1">Web is dead</a> and how mobile applications will dance on its grave.  <a title="Google - as if you don't know the URL" href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the <a title="Microsoft - As if you couldn't guess this URL" href="http://www.microsoft.com/">Microsoft</a> of the Interwebs, has split its personality over the issue, investing in both the <a title="Android Marketplace" href="http://www.android.com/">Android Marketplace</a> and the <a title="Chrome Web Store" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/">Chrome Web Store</a>. We all know where <a title="Apple (not Apple Computers)" href="http://www.apple.com/">Apple</a>, the Microsoft of mobile apps, seems to stand. To cement the point, Objective-C, the framework for implementing iPhone apps, jumped sky-high on the <a title="Tiobe Programming Community Index" href="http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html">Tiobe Programming Community Index</a> last month while PHP, the web's most popular programming language, remained inert.

There is no doubt that the mobile computing wave has slammed onto the Internet's shores and that more waves are soon to come. The<a title="New Media Consortium" href="http://www.nmc.org/"> New Media Consortium</a> has listed mobiles as "Technologies to Watch" in their <a title="Horizon Project" href="http://www.nmc.org/horizon">Horizon Reports</a> since at least 2009. According to <a title="The New Billion" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CBIQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bcg.com%2Fdocuments%2Ffile58645.pdf&amp;rct=j&amp;q=Boston%20Consulting%20Group%20Internet%27s%20next%20billion&amp;ei=7K2DTP6ZIYL58Aa34939AQ&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpJxkrlcNaJvdpQ_-8oZdn6uftxg&amp;sig2=ad9jSPdLbq2h2aYaE96Tuw&amp;cad=rja">an article</a> by the <a title="Boston Consulting Group" href="http://www.bgc.com/">Boston Consulting Group</a>, the next billion or so Internet users will be logging in via mobile devices. One billion. That's a lot, even in Internet terms.

As a web developer, I can't ignore this trend, but I also don't believe I need to completely shift my focus from web applications to native apps--or, in programming parlance, divert my total attention from PHP to Objective-C. Web applications, I think, are here to stay. What's changing are the number of devices with which web applications interact.

That's not to say web application development itself won't change. We web developers will need to be cognizant of mobile devices, especially their interfaces, and design accordingly.