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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Mobile optimised websites v native applications for mobile devices

James Rosewell writes:

51Degrees.mobi's figures show 10 per cent of web traffic in the UK originates from mobile devices. In India this figure rises to over 90 per cent. With global mobile internet usage expected to grow from 14 million at the end of 2010 to 788 million by the end of 2015, every business needs a strategy for mobile connectivity.

Businesses often consider creating apps for their customers in the hope of driving and capturing customers. These apps often contain a fraction of their products and usually lack the functionality to purchase. The mobile app isn’t adequately fulfilling consumers' needs, and while the business is shouting about how innovative their mobile app is, the rest of their company are secretly disappointed by poor consumer reviews, little return on investment and pricey, on-going maintenance charges.

A desktop application written for Windows 7 can be tested on a HP computer and can be assumed to work equally as well on a Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Samsung or any other vendor’s hardware. The same assumption does not apply to mobile applications. Major differences are experienced across versions or vendor implementations of the same operating system. Testing costs associated with native applications are considerable.

Businesses need to understand the different ways of optimising interaction and ways of communicating with their consumers before investing large sums of money.

There are five major mobile operating systems in use today. Apple's iOS, Android from Google, RIM's Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Phone and Nokia's Symbian. Waiting in the wings are Meego (Intel), WebOS (currently HP) and Bada (Samsung). Each operating system has its own development platform requiring unique source code resulting in very little re-use beyond text, graphics, video and other content. Supporting the five major operating systems will require five unique applications.

Native applications can access the resources of the mobile phone directly, assuming the user has provided permission for them to do so. For example, they can interact with the contact list, send and receive text messages, initiate phone calls or access local storage. They offer a rich user experience.

Unless a business case can be narrowed to support a single operating system, however, native applications will be expensive to build, test, deploy and maintain over the software life-cycle. Even if the operating system can be narrowed it’s likely to change extensively over the next two years. As an example Windows Mobile 6.5 applications will not run on Windows Phone 7.

Device fragmentation within some operating systems, notably Android and to a lesser extent Blackberry and Symbian, present challenges for developers. Design considerations such as screen size and input method all need to be catered for with either separate applications, or ones that automatically adapt to their environment.

Almost every mobile device sold in the past five years comes with a mobile web browser enabling web access. Most businesses will already have a website with an address included in all material from business cards to TV adverts plus supporting activities such as SEO or social media support. A mobile optimised web site built using basic user interface features, sharing the same address and other benefits represents a compelling choice.

Risk aware technology leaders should consider web based mobile solutions building on existing technology architecture and skill sets for consumer focused business cases. Internal business cases could be built for one operating system, but the organisation will be tied to the mobile vendor for the lifetime of the application. Overall, web-based applications are a more cost-efficient adaption for utilising mobile web-based interaction.

James Rosewell is a regular presenter on TheFonecast.com and is also managing director of 51Degrees.mobi. This article was first published on Figaro Digital.
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Opinion Articles

‘The Eyes Have It’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

DoCoMo are one of many network operators and handset manufacturers demonstrating innovative new products as Mobile World Congress. Our eye was caught by the employee demonstrating “Eye Controlled Earphones”. It’s a good job the ladies from the CBOSS stand weren’t walking past at the time.

Author: The Fonecast
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'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

Author: The Fonecast
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‘Innovation Corner’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

Author: The Fonecast
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Google “Mobile First” from Eric Schmidt’s Key Note at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

Author: The Fonecast
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The great Windows Mobile 7 conspiracy theory

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a good conspiracy theory. A good one, mind you. None of this “Funny thing happened on the way to Mars” nonsense. Oh no, not me. And, despite occasionally mirroring Jerry Fletcher by balancing a bottle on the door handle, I’ve never been inclined to publish such a theory. Until now.

You see, it’s Mobile World Congress in a fortnight’s time. Which is when the great and the good of the mobile industry – along with their mates and hangers-on – head for Barcelona. Microsoft will be there. They’re holding a press briefing on Monday afternoon. And there’s a lot of talk about Windows Mobile 7 being (unofficially) on the agenda. But where’s the evidence?

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Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

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Author: The Fonecast
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In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

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Author: The Fonecast
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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

Podcast - 30th January 2015

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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