The MonkCast Mike Hartington on the State of Mobile Development & Why CI/CD is Still So Hard
Jan 6, 2026
Mike Hartington, a Developer Advocate at Prisma and a veteran in mobile development, shares insights with Kate Holterhoff. They tackle the intricacies of cross-platform frameworks and the challenges of CI/CD in mobile app deployment. Mike discusses Ionic's web-first approach, explores the competition among frameworks like React Native and Flutter, and debates the reality of managing a single codebase. They also delve into the role of AI in development, app monetization strategies, and the ongoing complexities of app store dynamics.
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Longtime Mobile Practitioner
- Mike Hartington started building mobile apps around 2012 and has tracked mobile platform changes since then.
- He learned early by shipping trade-show iPad apps and kept following OS features and frameworks over years.
Web-First, Not Pure Web Or Native
- Ionic positioned itself as a web-first UI framework that sits between pure web and pure native apps.
- It provided mobile-tuned UI components and animations to make hybrid apps feel native.
One Codebase Until The Platform Bites
- A single shared codebase is desirable but often breaks at platform-specific corners for iOS, Android, and web.
- Teams commonly keep shared code yet fork where platform nuances demand native behavior.