Archive for mobile development

The tipping point for mobile operating systems

Posted in Mobile, Mobile Development, Mobile ecosystem with tags , , , , on April 7, 2009 by Shane Williamson

A key decider in a mobile operating system manufacturer’s battle for market share, is how and if, they are able to migrate outside of the traditional mobile phone market into other devices. It looks like Android is about to make the dash into other household appliances according to this article in the New York Times.

This is important for mobile operating system manufactures, as it increases their developer pool into non traditional mobile application areas that then expands the mobile operating system ecosystem. Mobile operating systems can be utilised in many different areas other than mobile phones such as vehicles, audio visual equipment, office equipment, vending machines, security systems, home automation and even traditional white-good appliances.

Developing a ubiquitous Application Programme Interface (API) has been tried by many before, but transcending into the different device types is a difficult journey. Microsoft has attempted to some degree to spread their Windows API into mobile and other household devices such as personal data appliances (PDAs), remote controls and media servers, but they always ended up having to change the API set considerably making development difficult for developers to port their code from one platform operating system to another.

Google’s Android operating system may become a platform nirvana if it can maintain that API set across multiple device types. Microsoft’s Windows operating environment comes with the legacy of an untethered world when it was first created. Android, however does not, as it was conceived in a connected and wireless world, making it more adaptive of this type of environment and is a good example of how a mobile operating system is cloud computing aware and takes advantage of this highly popular infrastructure.

The road to API nirvana is fraught with danger if core capabilities are not included, such as a well thought out product roadmap, a rigorous support system, a great usability experience and a sound development cost model.

It will be interesting to see where Android appears in next and if they keep a pure and open API environment.

Posted By Shane Williamson

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The long walk of the humble Smartphone.

Posted in 3G, Mobile, Mobile Devices with tags , , , , , on January 12, 2009 by Shane Williamson

With Palm’s recent announcement at CES of their new Palm Pre mobile incorporating their equally new mobile software platform WebOS, one wonders if there is room for yet another Smartphone operating system in the market today.

Consider what is happening to the humble mobile today as it is a device that is now replacing traditional PC mobile computing devices and even starting to head into mainstream PC desktop markets. In fact, Nokia last year was the biggest computer manufacturer in 2008. Whilst this seems a bit far fetched, remember that there are now over 4 billion mobile subscribers on the planet and the percentage of this as Smartphones is steadily increasing.

I’ve created a chart of the top 8 device manufacturers that have the greatest individual market shares.

image For details of what is and isn’t included in these numbers head over to Tomi Ahonen’s blog for the details

This chart shows how three mobile device manufacturers, Nokia, Apple & RIM (well 4 if you include Dell), each with their own mobile operating systems, are encroaching in on the traditional mainstream desktop players.

Mobile operating systems should be consolidating as the traditional operating systems did in the early PC days , but they are fighting the trend and are steadily increasing in number as new and old players throw their platforms into the mix, creating a highly competitive environment that is making it very hard for mobile developers to keep up with the fragmented market. This means applications for these Smartphones become operating system specific and not available across all devices.

Only two things will break this trend, one is consolidation will occur and the other is Cloud Computing or services and applications delivered over the wire versus from the device, will bring these applications and services to all Smartphone devices.

image

Today Smartphone devices are smashing the desktop chains knowledge workers have been slaved to for some time. Whilst these devices will not be completely replacing desktops for some time, they are empowering people to work where ever they want and when ever they want to.

IT departments need to start looking at mobile devices in the same way they do their existing PC fleets. One important factor is the overall integration planning in how these devices are complimenting and extending existing desktop systems/services.

As for backing a particular mobile operating system, that comes down to what level of integration you want your devices to have within your enterprise. This is one of the benefits that Cloud Computing can bring companies in utilising both traditional desktop and mobile devices more effectively to increase productivity and efficiency.

 Posted By Shane Williamson

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