In my opinion, 2011 was the beginning of a major shift in how developers work and the relevant technologies. Until the Windows 8 Developer Preview was released, I felt that the desktop computing model still had some legs, but I now see it as a zombie of a model; it will keep going for a while (maybe five to 10 years), but its relevance will quickly diminish. In its place, mobile computing (represented by iOS, Android, and Windows 8) and Web development are filling in the gaps quickly.

With these recent changes, kicking back, relaxing, and counting on our existing skill sets is not realistic. The skills that I think will be important for the next few years are: the Windows 8 model, HTML5, server-side Web development, and mobile development.

J.Ja