3. Java

It doesn't get any easier than this.

In the olden days, programmers using C and C++ to develop their apps used to spend up to 80% of their time on memory management issues. They were so complex that crazy little workarounds had to be implemented to fix things Java has been able to sail through from the start - like cleaning up memory after an exception, for example. Even multithreading was done differently according to which flavour of library you used because it wasn't core to the language. For system code, doing your own memory management gives a higher level of optimisation and control so has its place, but for Apps with the massive performance increases in the JVM and ultra-efficient auto garbage collection, it just seems so '90's to have to spend any time doing it yourself.

As far as writing apps on smartphones goes, Java is the slam dunk no-brainer when it comes to ease of use. Just to be clear, we are talking the flavour of Java which Android has implemented, aka "Dalvik". Don't let that name worry you though, it's totally compatible and most definitely not the abomination known as J2ME - a version of Java cut down so severely it was practically useless.

Not only is it as easy as it gets, but this harks back to the support point mentioned earlier. There is literally well over a decade of expertise out there, from best practices to optimisation to reusable libraries.

You have to know Java, sure, but this is nothing like the pain of the alternatives.