It's official - I've quit my day job.

I can remember ~10 years ago talking to my buddy about how one day we would be able to write killer apps that would run on our phones. At the time I had just picked up a Danger Sidekick - in many ways a predecessor to the iPhone (in fact it was started by a former Apple employee, who later went on to start Android as well). The phone had apps - like AIM, and MSN Messenger, and Telnet - and you could get them out of an app store - a revolutionary concept at the time in the largely pre-touch world. We imagined that one day they would allow 3rd party developers to write apps - no more creating boring desktop apps - we would be at the forefront of people's daily lives.

Fast-forward 10 years, and that has all largely come to fruition. I've been lucky to be a part of the mobile revolution that we've all witnessed these last several years writing mobile apps for folks like Microsoft, Home Shopping Network, Tesco, and others. While I've developed several mobile apps and games both professionally and independently, I have never been in a position to purely focus on mobile - and I wanted that to change.

As of a month ago today, I left my job at IQ as Director of Technology. To say that was a tough decision would be an understatement. Working at IQ, a digital agency in Atlanta, I was around some of the smartest folks I've ever worked with - from user experience gurus, to creative talent which continuously blew me away, to my own team of diverse and incredibly talented coders (big shout outs to our PMs and Account folks as well). It was unlike anywhere I'd worked before - and I largely give IQ credit for my evolution in the last 3 years from a mindset of a front-end-leaning developer, to one that sees opportunities and has the guts to go after them. It sucks that pursuing my dreams must come at the cost of me having to leave IQ - but I am very happy that transition has gone well, and that I have their support and well wishes.

So, what exactly does this mean? Well, for the short term it means that I'm getting back to full-time development. For the last 30 days I've largely locked myself in a room and been designing and coding. By this time next week you should see the results of those first 30 days - a game for Android which I created from scratch entirely by myself. The upcoming 30-60 days I will largely focus on Windows 8 development in preparation for the release of Windows 8, and more importantly the Windows 8 Store. Depending on how these first two ventures go, my plans may of course change, but tentatively my plans then move on to learning iOS to develop for iPhone/iPad - something I've been putting off for way too long. My goal being to round out my mobile knowledge, and to be able to develop for all the major players equally well by year-end.

My longterm goal? To be an independent mobile developer that can bring multi-platform apps and games to businesses that can't afford to hire 5-10+ person teams to create their own apps. In the mean time, it's my job to prove what I can do with various independent projects. My mantra succinctly has turned into "All Mobile Everything" - and that's what I plan on living by as I start out on my own. It's going to be a fun ride - one in which I'll probably learn a lot. I hope you'll stay tuned and help continue to support my efforts. If you'd like to get in touch, feel free to use the contact link on SmartyP.net.

Best wishes.