Mobile Platform Based Solutions – Approach And Issues

Gartner says “Predictions for 2013 are 21.6 billion apps sold for a

total of $29.5 billion revenue. 25 percent of the revenue generated by mobile applications will be from free versions, supported by

advertising”

Technology convergence has made the mobile phones as not just “phones” anymore with only voice and SMS features. Next to the PC

and Internet revolution, the viral spread of mobile technology will have a dramatic impact on the lives of individuals and institutions.

Convergence of internet and telecommunication technologies is increasing rapidly. We are at the age of mobility which is providing

us the freedom of being independent of time and place.

The Mobile Eco System:

The eco system is closely bound with sensitivity to changes for each actor responses. Typically the mobile platform based solutions are initiated by three major actors:

1. Enterprises: Mobile Applications for their customers, sales force and other stakeholders

2. Individuals: Individuals with mobile solutions ideas and concept and collaborate with technology/marketing organization to commercialize their concepts

3. Independent Software Vendors: Organizations with IT related capabilities with expertise in mobile based technologies. They have capabilities to create concepts and technology/marketing bandwidth to commercialize their initiatives.

The technology ecosystem is predominantly driven or controlled by device manufacturers and their

relevance in the market. Device operators control the application market via application stores. Some of the major differentiating factors across providers include:

1. Operating systems

2. UI (user interface) differences and controls 3. Availability of applications in app. stores

4. Developer friendly SDK’s 5. Upgrade and maintenance aspect

The developer eco system is affected by the changes around the factors highlighted above. Varied

operating system limits their option to port their solutions unlike a quick fix that can be done in PC platforms.

Though there are many players in the mobile application ecosystem, developers play a vital role and

impact majority of other stakeholders. The strategies have to be planned around the technology limitations and options unlike the conventional PC paradigm.

From developer perspective, some of the key challenges are:

Diverging Technology Options:

In the conventional software programming scenarios, developers have multiple options for development

languages, such as C, .NET, Java, etc. to create a software application. However, in the progress

of mobile application development, due to complex structure of mobile ecosystem, there is a fragmentation in terms of different development languages and developer

platforms.

Mobile Operating Systems:

Per Wiki, A mobile operating system (mobile OS) is the operating system that controls a Smartphone, tablet, PDA, or other mobile device. Modern mobile operating systems combine the features of a

personal computer operating system with touch screen, cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, video camera, speech recognition, voice recorder, music player, near field

communication, personal digital assistant (PDA), and other features.

Dependency on Devices/Operator trends:

Mobile phones have shorter life-cycle and new models with upgraded features keep flooding the market. With the upgraded OS, different providers and devices provide multiple options to the users

and they differ technically from end user perspective as well. Different device models support different functionalities, such as location identifier, gravity censors, camera flash, etc. Hardware

performances also vary between devices. In addition to that, some applications need to support external device functionalities.

Typical Development Life Cycle Challenges:

Typical to any product development life cycle, building a

solution on a mobile platform goes through multiple phases. The conversion of any idea into a commercial product

involves multiple stages and converting an idea into a concept is a vital phase. The concept involves a blueprint of the solution approach where the technical limitations

are not taken considerations. The evaluation of technical platforms in terms of phone OS are done during technical

implementation stage. Typical product development challenges:

1. Quick to market tradeoff with other factors due to

high competition 2. Ability to accommodate the delay between getting a new technology to market and getting it

well-adopted from financial perspective 3. Market dynamics scanning and continuous iteration

4. Concept to product conversion on a solid technical architecture and scalable solution framework

5. Productization than project orientation

From Challenges to Opportunities

The spirit of entrepreneurship and enterprising opportunities lies in negotiating challenges and converting them into opportunities. The technology challenges with mobile platforms is throwing many

innovations and opportunities to convert your ideas to commercial products.

1. Platform portable solutions: Cross-platform application development enables maximum market reach in the mobile software ecosystem. Since mass market applications are developed

to target broad range of consumers using different mobile devices and thus different mobile operating systems, cross-platform application development is the best way to embrace the

largest market share of application users. 2. Mange OS version dependencies and upgrades by diligent packaging and distribution

3. Orient towards OS than market trends on devices 4. Adapt innovative development life cycle with more focus towards testing and test marketing.

The surprises are more towards the final stages.

Mange product life cycle efficiently by identifying specific phase requirements

For more information about the Hire IOS Developers, Mobile Application Development, Please visit: http://www.optisolbusiness.com/index.php/android-development

Contact Us:

Development Center: OptiSol Business Solutions Pvt Ltd,

87/4, Arcot Road, Vadapalani,

Chennai - 600026, Phone - +91 44 42136061,

Tamilnadu, India. Email: info@optisolbusiness.com