Do mobile app stores have a future?
This morning I came across this interesting and well-written article on the current state of affairs with regard to mobile app stores. I think the author’s forward looking comments are reasonable if you limit your outlook to a year or two, but there are a couple of things to consider with regard to app stores [...]
Mobile testing madness
I saw a couple of interesting videos this week that are worth taking a look at. The first one is about testing mobile application. So if you have an app that targets a multiplicity of handsets, all with different form factors, technical specs, and service providers, how can you go about testing your apps? Its [...]
Mobile Applications & Services Lab Launched at GVSU
The Mobile Applications and Services Lab recently held its first research group meeting at GVSU’s School of Computing and Information Systems. In addition to myself, the group currently consists of five CIS graduate students and two undergraduate researchers. A variety of topics were discussed at the initial meeting, and perhaps most importantly we discussed our [...]
7 future proof assumptions for mobile app developers
Recently I was speaking with a person who is managing a fairly sizable team of developers that is creating a mobile application. They anticipate seeing the application launched within the USA in around six months or so. The person explained to me that their biggest challenge to-date is coding for and testing various Java ME versions of their client app which must run on hundreds of different handsets, all with different form factors, and on a variety of different operator networks. When I asked why they were spending so much energy on their Java ME client the response was that their customer required the client to run on 80% of the handsets in use by consumers today.
If I were in their position, I’d spend more time and energy convincing my customer of the reality that is upon us and leave the Java ME slogging to my competitors. The mobile application landscape has and will continue to change rapidly in the months ahead, thanks to strong growth and innovation in the smartphone category. A recently published Gartner study reports that in 2Q09 the overall handset market declined 6.1% while the smartphone category increased by 27%. If you are currently developing a mobile application or soon will be, here are 7 future proof assumptions that I think you can safely make.
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About
Jonathan Engelsma is a computer scientist, programmer, teacher, mobile technology enthusiast, inventor, beekeeper and life long student. He is currently an Associate Professor in GVSU's School of Computing, where he leads the GVSU Mobile Applications and Services Laboratory.
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