Employees are increasingly working away from their offices and require access to corporate data normally found only on PC's connected to enterprise networks. As such, companies are looking for ways to support this trend. According to InformationWeek, of the 695 business technology professionals responding to their November 2009 InformationWeek Analytics Application Mobilization Survey, 42% say their organizations have deployed mobile applications on smartphones; an additional 11% say they’ll do so within the next 12 months. Six percent have up to a 24-month window. Just 23% say they have no plans to deploy.
One caveat: Only 21% of the 535 respondents currently deploying or planning to deploy mobile apps on smartphones indicate widespread programs throughout their organizations, compared with 42% pointing to department-specific rollouts. So it seems while companies recognize the important of supporting an increasingly mobile workforce, they're reluctant to implement widespread programs.
What does "mobile" mean?
First you have a desktop PC. While it is relatively compact, is not really mobile. Your laptop, while mobile relative to a desktop, retains the same basic physical requirements as a desktop: horizontal surface, room for keyboard and screen, the use of two hands, etc.
Your mobile device, however, represents a significant divergent in the evolution of portable personal computing. You are no longer restricted to a limited set of movements and positions - not to mention the use of two hands - in order to interact with your device. In essence, the truly mobile device is an extension of you and not visa-versa.
It is no wonder that there is a great variety of different mobile devices with different capabilities, features and restrictions. Mobile devices may have different technical capabilities (such as amount of available memory, resolution and size of the display, network connectivity options, support for different standards and interfaces, and different operating system versions); cell phone operators may require operator-specific device variants; and there can be a need for language-specific variants for different global markets.
Because of the many technical limitations of the mobile device, there are many new complexities developers must deal with. For a mobile device to connect to the same reservoir of data as a desktop PC, the mobile phone must first connect over a an older, slower GPRS, or perhaps via a newer, faster G3 or EDGE connection, and once the connection has been achieved, it must be sustained as the user moves through the coverage matrix of a given carrier. As a result, mobile devices are severely limited in terms of bandwidth. Furthermore, the miniaturized view-port adds yet another restriction on the data that may be accessed by a mobile device.
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Globally, mobile devices outnumber computers 20-1. In 2006, according to AMR, Nokia alone were selling on average 11-12 phones a second (http://news.softpedia.com/news/11-12-Nokia-Phones-Are-Sold-at-Every-Second-56267.shtml).
When we examine the technical hurdles faced by a mobile device in connecting to the very same reservoir of data as a desktop or laptop PC, we are quickly struck by the nearly miraculous nature of the connection. The mobile phone must first connect over a less powerful network (be it an older, slower GPRS, or perhaps via a newer, faster G3 or EDGE connection,) and once the connection has been achieved, it must be sustained through a nearly balletic transference of the call from cell-tower to cell-tower as the user moves through the coverage matrix of a given carrier. As a result, mobile devices are severely limited in terms of bandwidth. Furthermore, the miniaturized view-port adds yet another restriction on the data that may be accessed by a mobile device.
Audience is key
When designing any product, website or not, knowing your audience is key. What do they want? Someone browsing your mobile site has very different needs and expectations from a desktop customer. Mobile users are limited by their device and are not, for example, accessing your site in order to download a large PDF or browse videos by their favorite band. So what, then, are the core motivations that would bring someone to your mobile site? Fortunately Google has been focusing on this question for quite some time and their research has revealed that there are three primary types of mobile user.
When designing for the mobile web, it is useful - indeed, essential - to keep the following three categories of mobile web surfers in mind. Your central question should be "which group or groups are most likely to access my mobile website?" Once this question has been answered, you can begin to focus on creating the site's architecture accordingly.
The challenges
In general, a major challenge for mobile application development is the great variety of different target devices with different capabilities, features and restrictions. Devices may inherently have different technical capabilities (such as amount of available memory, resolution and size of the display, network connectivity options, support for different standards and interfaces, and different operating system versions); cell phone operators may require operator-specific device variants; and there can be a need for language-specific variants for different global markets.
The approaches
Developing and managing a wide variety of application variants demands extra effort in mobile environment. There are two main approaches:
Developing the application so that it is adjustable and scalable to a wide variety of devices from the beginning. The drawback of this approach can be that the initial development effort is more significant. Typically, it is preferred to have a flexible, adjustable, and scalable application architecture. The initial effort pays off sooner or later, and is an investment in the future.
Developing the application so that it is targeted to a narrow number of similar target devices. While the initial development time may be shorter, the drawback is that the post-production phases and variant creation is typically more difficult. This approach can be beneficial in certain cases, for example when developing enterprise applications where the device portfolio is easily controlled and limited, making the need for creating variants lower or even completely unnecessary.
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