Mobile Phone Development

Gartner Technology Trends for 2013

Simon Judge — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:47:39 +0000

Many companies doing development are looking at the ‘here and now’. I previously observed how successful products sometimes project the technical and market roadmap to the next few years and try to fill a gap. In mobile, things change very quickly, timescales are compressed and it’s rarely sensible to try to project more than a year or two into the future. So what are the trends for the say the next year?

Gartner identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2013. First of all notice Gartner is talking about "Technology Trends" not "Mobile Trends". The fact that many of Gartner’s trends directly or indirectly implicate mobile demonstrates how important mobile has become.

I will leave you to read the press release. However, there are just two statements I find harder to believe will come to fruition…

"However, only 20 percent of those handsets are likely to be Windows phones."

20% of smartphones sold in mature markets in 2013 will be Windows Phones? They must be dreaming. I believe it’s more likely to be single digit percentages, as now. To discover why, see my previous post on Windows 8.

"However, there will be a long term shift away from native apps to Web apps as HTML5 becomes more capable."

How will HTML5 become more capable? I can’t yet see how (or why) Apple and Google, the current browser gatekeepers, might make HTML5 have capabilities closer to those of native apps. Is it in their interest? How have mobile browsers’ capability improved over the last five years let alone the next five years? Don’t get me wrong, I would like it to happen but I don’t yet see the commercial drivers for this. If you want to help make this actually happen then check out CoreMob.

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MoMo London HTML5 vs Native

Simon Judge — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:44:57 +0000

On Monday evening I was at MoMo London at the ‘annual’ HTML5 vs Native debate. It was excellently chaired by the entertaining Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review, with two teams of debaters. Andrew Betts (FT Labs), Sam Arora (DeviceAnywhere) and Jose Valles (BlueVia) were in the ‘Pro-HTML5′ team while Nick Barnett (Mippin), Alex Caccia (Marmalade) and Chris Book (Bardowl) were in the ‘pro-native’ team.

To cut a long story short, the usual pros and cons of HTML5 and native were discussed (see my previous posts) and predictably it came down to ‘horses for courses’. It all depends on your project. However, there were some items of interest that might be worth further thought…

All the latest apps the panel had downloaded were native.
Andrew Betts from FT Labs suggested HTML5 hasn’t been found suitable for many projects because HTML app implementors "didn’t do it very well".
Jose Valles said that maybe there’s a need to push to get (HTML) APIs open. Later, Jon Rabin, organiser of MoMoLo mentioned CoreMob that has these goals.
Alex Caccia commented on how they (Marmalade) think of ARM as a platform across devices, in a similar way to the way some people see HTML5 as cross platform.
Alex also observed that when you get stuck, HTML5 tends to be a black box that needs difficult experimentation while native has APIs that are easier to explore.
There was contention as to whether an app should look and behave like other apps on the phone or use brand-familiar idioms. Again, it depends on the actual app (and brand).
There was an observation from Andrew that companies tend to blow their budget on creating an iOS app. When they suddenly realise Android is needed, there’s much less money available and the result is a poorer app. When further platforms are needed, the budgets get even smaller.
There was a question as to what the next billion users, in less developed countries, might end up using and whether this might influence development trends.
Finally, reversing last year’s result, the audience voted for native over HTML.

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Mobile Web Technologies Tide is Turning?

Simon Judge — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:06:57 +0000

There’s a thought-provoking article at at AlThingsD that observes that the Mobile Tide is Turning Towards Full-Fledged Apps rather web-based technologies. It describes the case of Facebook and to a lesser extent Quora who have embraced native rather than web technologies.

The lesson here is that if you want the best user experience you have to go native. However, remember not everyone needs ‘the best experience’ and it’s possible to trade this for quicker, less expensive development and more flexible cross-platform deployment by using HTML5 development. I see the more dangerous scenario as one where a company takes on HTML5 development without really knowing they are making a tradeoff. Trying to get HTML close to the user experience of a native app costs a huge amount of effort that might as well have been spent on native apps. Conversely, if you know and accept, rather than fight, HTML5’s limitations then its advantages will be maximised.

There are three main areas to consider…

Look and Feel: It’s possible to get HTML close to the look and feel of Android and iOS but it takes a considerable amount of effort due to browser fragmentation. If you want an Android/iOS look and feel then I would recommend you go native. If you want more of a custom, branded look then HTML will be ok.
Functionality: If you are just displaying information then HTML5 is ok. If you are doing lots clever things with the information together with phone features (improving the user experience) you should go native as adding many of these things via web technologies ends up being either impossible or will require native code written anyway (e.g. for PhoneGap).
Performance: The main issue here, for non-games, is usually scrolling. Less smooth scrolling is the tradeoff for using HTML5.

12 September UPDATE: Mark Zuckerberg admits wasting 2 years on HTML5

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Developer Garden Component Marketplace

Simon Judge — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:17:42 +0000

Developer Garden Component Marketplace is a new online marketplace from Deutsche Telekom (powered by Verious) where developers can buy and sell software components for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and HTML5. It includes some Deutsche Telekom components as well as those provided by Verious.

Components are a great way to get your project up and running quickly. However, here are some things to think about before blindly using a 3rd party component…

What happens if there’s a problem, for example a bug in the component?
What happens if the 3rd party goes out of business?
What happens if the component becomes incompatible with future released devices?
What are the costs? Is there a per-user/device cost? Do the costs scale well?

The first three considerations are non-issues if you can also obtain the source code.

Also, another thought. Some of the components I found on the component marketplace had open source equivalents with slightly less functionality - check these first to work out what extra a commercial solution is actually offering.

Web App Tips

Simon Judge — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:57:20 +0000

People underestimate the effort required to create a great web app. They tend to get blinded by the write-once promise but in practice it can quickly turn into a nightmare. Brian Leroux takes a deep look at in his presentation on how the mobile web is a mess. I have previously written a lot about this (see the related articles below).

However, there are still some types of project, particularly self-promoted information-heavy apps, where web apps can make sense. Think very very carefully if you really need a web app or whether a normal ‘desktop’ web site will suffice. Keeping with the latter will save a lot of pain. If you do decide to create an app using web technologies, here are some high level tips to get you started…

Decide what devices you are going to support. No, you can’t support them all. Plan to fully test the devices you choose to support.
Think about the implications of different screen sizes and orientations. More specifically, think about families of different graphics sizes. Consider using common layouts to simpify moving between horizontal and vertical orientations.
Don’t make it look like iOS. It’s like asking Ford car owners to use a Mercedes steering wheel in their car. Try to give the app a generic web theme that uses touch gestures when available on the device.
Consider what’s necessary to make the app secure. Motorola MOTODEV has a new article on Designing HTML5 Apps that includes tips on the security of offline storage, cross-origin resource sharing and web sockets.

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Tablet App vs Smartphone App Design Tips

Simon Judge — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:03:43 +0000

I have previously commented on the Implications of App Use on App Design and questioned whether ’snacking’ is as equally applicable to tablet apps. I am seeing a growing number of people thinking about making their Android apps more tablet friendly as opposed to just providing a tablet-esqe view on what was a smartphone app. I am also seeing people re-thinking their functionality and UI when porting to the Android tablet from iPhone and iPad. Here are some observations and tips…

First of all, do you really need an app? People tend to go to the web first on the tablet. People use apps on smartphones because they make information easier to digest. This advantage is less so on tablets. If you decide on a tablet app then it needs to be compelling and generally needs to do a lot more than the smartphone version.
Unlike smartphones, tablets tend to be shared devices. This means you might need to think about providing for multiple users.
Think about what you mean by a tablet. Some low end tablets have lower resolution tablet screens (e.g. 800×480) and depending on your app, it might be best to display in the same way as on a smartphone.
A large proportion of tablets are WiFi only. You might need to re-think communication if you use SMS or voice in your app.
A tablet is usually a second mobile device. You might need to consider sync of settings and/or data between the same app on different devices.

As an aside, if you decide to go for just a web site, test to make sure it works. I am tired of visiting sites on the tablet and them providing a mobile optimised version that doesn’t work well or fully. There tends to be a ’show full web’ version link at the bottom that, in many cases, seems to eventually cycle back to the mobile version.

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Apache Mobile Filter Updated

Simon Judge — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:54:36 +0000

In June 2009, I wrote about Apache Mobile Filter that allows WURFL (now gone commercial) access from any programming language, not just Java and php.

Now that the service is more popular and WURFL has gone commercial, Apache Mobile Filter has been updated to include further device repositories DetectRight and 51Degrees.mobi. The author hopes to add an open source device repository in due course.

Mobile Frameworks Comparision Chart

Simon Judge — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:06:55 +0000

Barely a day goes by without me receiving a press release on yet another mobile app generator or framework. The frameworks tend to be more interesting for me as they allow developers to do more. Today I came across a useful mobile framework comparison chart. Although it currently only maps platforms to frameworks, it’s already getting very complex. However, what’s really needed is a framework feature comparison.

Frameworks are a highly competitive area at the moment. No one framework does everything (or even covers a significant number of features across all platforms) so there is still a lot of opportunity and competition in this area. In fact, it might be said that no framework will ever be complete because the underlying mobile platforms are themselves changing over time.

One problem for developers is what happens when frameworks mature and uncompetitive platforms disappear. Many of the frameworks are VC funded and will be found to be either not financially viable or will have to start making a profit. Some developers will find they can’t use their chosen framework any more while others, using popular frameworks, will find they are tied into a technology with increasing prices… much like Google app engine is currently doing in the web app world.

In some ways, these frameworks can be seen as both bridging a development gap between platforms and also making up for the deficiencies of mobile web (HTML5) apps. Web apps are a contender to replace frameworks in the longer term but, I believe, not without some kind of disruptive occurence that aligns the people working on web browsers, platforms and devices. Without this disruptive occurence, fragmentation of capabilities will severely inhibit the potential of mobile web apps. Frameworks might continue to be needed to resolve differences between browsers, platforms and devices.

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Relative Time Spent Using Apps

Simon Judge — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:28:39 +0000

Nielsen has some statistics on the total time spent on apps and web, the proportion spent on each and a breakdown of apps that account for the majority of the time.

An hour a day is spent interacting with apps and web
67% of this time is spent on apps
The top 10 Android apps account for 43 percent of all the time spent by Android consumers on mobile apps
The top 50 apps account for 61 percent of the time spent

What does this mean for mobile developers? At first sight you might conclude that it’s better to develop an app rather than for the web. You might also conclude that unless you are a ‘top’ app your app might not get much use. However, as with many other mobile issues, "it depends".

It’s not surprising a low number of apps account for a large percentage of the time. These apps will be email, social networking and other such apps that run in the background and are communication tools. No utility app is going to be able to compete on time spent. However, it doesn’t mean it won’t be run regularly, possibly for a short time, and become useful.

The main reason people choose apps over the web is usability. Apps are both easier to discover and easier to use. However, if you are a large company, lets say for example a large brand, you can easily channel people to the web. Time spent on the ‘web app’ can make it close to, but never totally as good as, the usability of an app. You can leverage the size of your company/brand to negate the time spent on apps vs web issue. This is what large publishers are already starting to do, but for other monetary reasons, in moving their apps off the Apple App Store and onto the web.

The two learnings from this are not to take statistics at face value and think how you can use existing company assets to create contrarian strategies.

Mobile OS Platform Fragmentation

Simon Judge — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:11:46 +0000

The Vision Mobile Developer Economics report has an interesting chart showing fragmentation of the various platforms. That is, the number of versions of an app that have to be developed to cater for different versions of a given OS.

This concurs with my previous observation that problems of Android Fragmentation have been exaggerated. However, I suppose it depends on your reference point. As the chart shows, if you are only coming from iOS then it will seem more fragmented. If you previously worked on Java ME, Symbian, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile then Android Fragmentation won’t seem that bad.

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