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[00:00:00] Introduction
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[00:00:00] Welcome to a special episode of Empower Apps. Once again, I'm your host, Leo Dion. Today we're gonna do a review of 2024 for me personally and what 2025 will look like. We'll talk about the job market, the market for indies and freelancers like myself. We'll talk a bit about Apple's year and what 2025 could look like for Apple.
[00:00:21] We'll talk about previous episodes, videos, and tutorials from this year, and what was a hit and what wasn't. Last but not least, we'll talk about my plans for 2025 and opportunities for you to be involved. For me personally, this was a big year. Not only did I speak in London at Server-Side Swift Conference, but also at one more thing, the side conference during WWDC.
[00:00:43] But as soon as I got back from WWDC we decided that this is the year for the Dion family to move. We didn't move very far. We stayed in the same town, but we are looking for a place that was bigger and closer to family and school, walking distance to various places. Not only that, but I made a big decision for my career this year.
[00:01:07] Job Market
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[00:01:07] Before we get started, let's talk about the economic situation that was 2024. Well, it wasn't particularly on an awful year economically. It did affect the tech industry pretty strongly. What I mean is when it comes to software developers like us, it was a particularly tough year. If you've listened to my previous episodes, you probably heard me say that the three big factors were interest rates and inflation, the anticipation for AI and the reaction to the post COVID over hiring that we saw.
[00:01:38] With high interest rates, companies were playing it safe. There's also this anticipation that AI will continue to progress. So a lot of companies are saving money and just not trying to hire because they think those jobs will be obsolete. And of course we know that companies hired a lot of engineers during covid.
[00:01:58] I do think post-election companies think the market will be more stable, so they will be, feel more comfortable hiring more engineers. I do think 2025 will be the year we begin to see the limits of ai. I do think AI will continue to progress, but not in the way science fiction and many prognosticators suggest I've spoken before about how I've made AI part of my workflow, and I think it's gonna have a big effect on everybody's day-to-day work.
[00:02:26] But at the end of the day, it's important for someone to have actual deep knowledge than to rely on ai. If I'm afraid of anything, I'm afraid AI will make it easier for people to make cheap, unreliable work. We've already seen this with some video that's been built using AI and forms, emails that we get, things like that.
[00:02:47] And we've also seen this in the hiring process, which I'll get into. It's affected that in a negative way. Not only has AI made the application and hiring process even more difficult, but the proliferation of ghost posts where companies post jobs without any plan for immediate hiring has made the process more difficult.
[00:03:06] And so where software engineers have been laid off, so have HR employees, so that makes the problem even worse. And so at this point, I found that posts on the web are not even worth my time. And really what I've found the best way is through personal connections with other people, which has been the most helpful.
[00:03:28] So with all the challenges in finding a new contract and having just persisted a new home, and with our 6 children becoming older and more expensive I've decided to pursue a full-time job. I've been working a full-time job for over a month now. Not only do I like having a steady paycheck and benefits but the team has been fantastic.
[00:03:51] I know them from previous work and I've been really excited to contribute and help guide the team through the set of features and enhancements that we'll be making to the app. This, of course, will have ramifications for my contract and indie work, but also for you, my audience, but. We'll get into that later in the episode.
[00:04:13] Apple Stuff
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[00:04:13] Let's now talk about Apple and how 2024 went and what Apple's 2025 might look like. So I actually had to look it up, but this was the year that not only have we seen Apple Intelligence, but we've also seen the release of the Vision Pro. That was back in February. So. We have these two big products that Apple has been pushing, that I would say has not been a roaring success.
[00:04:44] We know that the sales figures for the Vision Pro are not great. And we know that there's been a lack of new apps for the device. We also know that Apple Dev intelligence hasn't had the best press lately, and we're already seeing some pullback from. The next release of iOS. Now we know, of course, that Apple is in a very safe place economically, but this year it seems like they have had some real struggles when it comes to new innovations.
[00:05:16] While many people think that. These have been planned perhaps as slow growing or improving products that they will continue to iterate over the Vision Pro or iterate over Apple intelligence that seems to kind of contradict their marketing plan. In particular with Apple Intelligence being the flagship feature for the iPhone 16 at least that's what Snoop Dogg and Brian Mahomes tells me every time I get an ad online.
[00:05:45] So, I don't know, people have become kind of skeptical of Apple's innovation and this year shows. For me personally, I had no interest in purchasing a $4,000 vision Pro. Because I just, I can't envision any way of making up that cost and I've already been burnt developing for devices like the Apple Watch.
[00:06:10] I mean, I love my Apple Watch and it certainly has grown into the successful device it is today. But I would be less tolerant of any sort of issues I run into if I'm gonna spend something like $4,000 on a vision Pro. On top of those challenges, we know that when it comes to trade in 2025 there could be some significant challenges especially in relation to Apple's relationship to China.
[00:06:37] We can see Apple trying to cur favor so they aren't affected as much. They will be in some way if not in the immediate future. Certainly long term. As far as the Vision Pro in 2025, it's a big unknown whether they're gonna keep iterating and putting new silicon chips or coming out with a more budget version.
[00:06:58] I mean, I do think they will continually improve the product, but whether it's a more, long term thing like the Mac Pro or a home pod I think seems to be the way it's leaning. I don't know how they're gonna make it more market friendly when it comes to Apple intelligence. I think they'll continue to improve upon it.
[00:07:19] But I feel like many of us have been burnt by the string of. Siri improvements that we've seen over the years. So I'm hesitant to see those improvements to Apple Intelligence make a difference. So as far as successes for Apple this year we've seen that the redesign M four back mini has been a big hit.
[00:07:42] That there's still a product and a desire for their most consistent product. Apple fans truly love the Mac and we continue to see dividends from their investment in Apple silicon. Maybe this will be the year they focus on core strengths. We've been hearing a lot of pro rumors about new products this year, such as the home pod with a screen.
[00:08:03] So we'll see how 2025 turns out. I do wanna note one thing where Apple has tried it to grow revenue has been services such as iCloud, apple TV plus Apple Music. As iPhone sales have pretty much slumped or plateaued. As far as a developer, I'm sure many of those services were written in Java many years ago.
[00:08:26] If my trip to London is any indication with the announcement of Swift Java Interop, I am sure there's a drive for Apple to migrate those services over to Swift, which I think goes to show you that Swift will continue to be a big part of Apple's development.
[00:08:45] I would include server side Swift will continue to be a good skill to have .
[00:08:51] Analytics Review
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[00:08:51] So now that we've talked about Apple, let's get into what specific topics people were interested in this year. So in 2024 I looked at all the statistics from the podcast, from YouTube and from my blog and just kind of looked at what I saw was the big picture.
[00:09:07] So. It comes as no surprise, probably that Swift UI is really popular still. Any episode that mentions Swift UI, gets a ton of views or listens . So that will be something I'm gonna continue investing in for this year. Whether it's migrating from UI kit or dealing with state change or interesting animations, anything like that.
[00:09:31] A lot of people are interested in Swift 6 in the future of Swift. We've had Matt on several times and at CMC folks really enjoy his take and his tips he offers when it comes to developing in Swift 6 or migrating to Swift 6 So yeah, we'll be continuing to talk about that. I'm sure you're gonna be busy working on that stuff too.
[00:09:54] Outside of code, there's always interest in things like architecture. Anything involving big picture software development? I think it's a great way. I, I think folks who are looking to expand their career or build something that will be easy to maintain, always gonna be interested in those kind of topics.
[00:10:13] For the long-term development of their products. It seems like there's still interest in Swift Package Manager and Server side Swift, so I'll continue to do that. It seems that Swift Package Manager is increasing an interest. So that's a topic I enjoy and we'll be happy to continue showcasing on the podcast.
[00:10:31] Lastly, when it comes to timely topics folks are interested in how AI and language models fit in their daily development workflow rather Than necessarily the development side of it. So I will continue to talk about that .
[00:10:47] I wanna mention there's still an interest in my live streams with a new job.
[00:10:51] I still need to figure out that schedule for that. But be on the lookout for that in the future. If you have any suggestions for a topic or something you wanna watch me live stream, do please do let me know. I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd love to showcase something I'm working on, so that's definitely gonna be something we.
[00:11:10] Future Plans
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[00:11:10] Let's talk about my future plans for 2025 as far as app development.
[00:11:16] With my limited schedule, I'm going to attempt to build smaller apps. I really want to implement Jordy's 2, 2, 2 method. I have a link to that. Episode and perhaps his talks in the show notes as well. As far as existing apps, I will continue to update them. I'm still in the middle of a rewrite of Har Twitch, which will be rebranded Bitness. I'll be continue to be working on that this year.
[00:11:43] My work on bushel will continue in 2025. I have some big exciting plans for that one. I can reveal something now that have already begun. Open sourcing part of bushel's code first. As you may have heard, I open sourced the library I built for interfacing with Swift data.
[00:12:02] Data Thespian. Data Thespian allows you to use model actors to query an interface with Swift data. In the background, I've already written a series of tutorials. If you follow me on social, which you can check out in the show notes below there will be more tutorials coming out regarding things like synchronization and notifications.
[00:12:22] So be sure to follow me on social media or subscribe to the newsletter to get those. I'm gonna be open sourcing the Swift UI views the reusable pieces from Bushel. This library will be called Radiant Kit, and I'll be writing a series of blog posts and documentation for that as well. Be on the lookout for that.
[00:12:42] Next is bushel kit. I need to add more documentation and build that out more. But I'm planning to open source parts of bushel that can be open source. Things like easy access to ACL I allowing for third party development of anything. Any pieces that I can extract and that I feel like are reus not reusable, but pluggable, I guess into like a, something like a CLI tool that's what will be included in bushel kit.
[00:13:17] I am finishing up package DSL. I've talked about that before. It's a specification and a set of code, which allows you to easily create large and complex Swift packages. I'll be including a I'll be including documentation, a command line tool, and more soon. So like I said, follow me, listen to the podcast.
[00:13:40] Read the newsletter to hear more about that as well. I will be continuing to focus on the podcast in 2025, but it will be more focus. Part of looking at the analytics was looking at. What months were the most popular? It's re pretty revealing that months around WWDC in September when the iPhone is released, tend to be the biggest months of the year.
[00:14:04] So I will really be focusing on those and taking more time off of recording in the more quiet months like I did with January as well. I wanna create more focused episodes on topics which you really like. One thing I've learned is how much you also like my written content, so I will focus even more on that.
[00:14:25] As far as tutorials and blog posts we've already talked about the Swift data stuff and there'll be more stuff about Swift Package Manager and some of the open source projects I'll be working on. Lastly, concerning bright digit. Contract work that will not stop. I still have existing clients and clients who are interested but I'll be looking for subcontractors.
[00:14:47] So if you're someone who can help me in my team with existing work or new work let me know. I'm specifically, of course, I'm looking for iOS developers. But with the projects that I have, I do a lot of macOS development, watchOS Development, HealthKit , Server-Side Swift. If you're somebody who knows about Swift and also has done any VueJS or TypeScript work that would be really helpful as well.
[00:15:16] So if that's something you're interested in reach out to me. You can email me at. leo@brightdigit.com. Send me your resume and any info regarding what you're looking for or your availability or rate, things like that please do send that to me. I'd really appreciate it. ' cause I'm definitely looking for help in that space.
[00:15:37] Before I close out, I wanted to thank you, the audience. It has been a real inspiration for me to continue recording, sharing my thoughts. It's a great opportunity for me to talk to folks who are 10 times smarter than me, and I enjoy it. And I hope you've enjoyed listening to me as well, talking about development in the apple space and Swift development.
[00:15:57] Those are things I enjoy and that inspiration from you telling me how much you love the show will continue to guide me in 2025. I also want to especially thank my Patreon audience. I. That has been fantastic. If there's anything you would like for me, I know you've really enjoyed the early access stuff and just kind of getting insight scoop on what I've been working on, like this script here.
[00:16:24] Thank you so much for your contribution. I'll continue to share exclusive content and give you early access to those articles and tutorials and getting your feedback and your support has been greatly greatly inspired me. I'm looking forward to 2025 and continuing to produce content for you.
[00:16:42] If you have any suggestions or comments, please reach out and let me know. The, if you don't wanna join my Patreon, you definitely should be looking into subscribing to my newsletter. I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well. And least you can do perhaps is, and I say this, every episode is put a review in for the podcast.
[00:17:05] That would be greatly appreciated. Or if you're watching this on YouTube, like and subscribe as well. It's a great way for me to know what you like and what you enjoy. I enjoy making this, so I am gonna continue in 2025, going pretty well. I hope you had a wonderful 2024 and I look forward to speaking to you again.
[00:17:26] Bye everyone.
