Modern mobile development overview

Modern mobile development overview Platforms, Trends, Specifics

Agenda Introduction A bit of history High-level overview of the market. Who are the biggest players? (as of now) Trends JavaME/Windows CE legacy platforms BlackBerry platform Symbian platform iOS (iPhone OS) Android Windows Phone 7, MeeGO, ? Closing comments/QAs

A bit of history What used to be a mobile development? Major players: JavaME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry How to blow your platform. User guide Be arrogant Don't tolerate your rivals Disrespect users Disrespect developers Don't admit your faults Stop evolving The world is changing - IGNORE

Drive the Evolution From enterprise to consumers Growing community of loyal users Show respect to devs and make devs respect the platform Excel the average app quality Remove frustration Choose your target audience carefully Integration is the key - be social! Show some uniqueness Be innovative

The most important thing to remember Money drives innovation (vendor -> manufacturer -> consumer -> developer ->)

Short Q/A? Who drives the evolution? Android, iPhone Who strives for evolution? BlackBerry, Symbian Fresh meat Windows Phone 7, MeeGO, WebOS

What constitutes a mature mobile development platform? Mature SDK and tools Healthy developer community Carefully chosen target audience Effective means for app distribution How can I make money with this platform? Continuous support from vendor

Java ME (J2ME) Developed by Sun in 1999 Set of specifications without the implementation (profiles and JSRs) Runtime environment designed to work on embedded devices Java 1.3 language The platform is fragmented Your options are limited - keep that in mind Still viable (2.1 billion mobile phones) Entry level is low

What's in the box? MIDP 2.0 Core packages primitives, collections, User Interface Package Subset of Java AWT, game APIs Networking Package Generic Connection framework Persistence Package Record store Application Lifecycle Package Defines lifecycle for MIDlets Audio Package Part of Mobile Media API Public Key Package Key verification

Nightmares of JavaME Signing nightmare Distribution nightmare UI and UX nightmares Media player nightmare App size nightmare Emulator nightmare Stone Age nightmare

Java ME (J2ME), lessons learned Fragmentation is evil (especially when it's driven by design!) Bureaucracy kills the platform You need means for unified app distribution Good UI matters! Be ready for changes Java ME is a good training ground because it's easy to learn intuitive to program (language, APIs) provides little or no choice Java ME is still alive (Profile 3.0, 2009)

Recommendation If you want to test how does it feel to be mobile developer, start with JavaME. It is easy to learn, intuitive to program and it will provide you with all basic flavors of mobile development. I don't think is has a future in outsourcing, though.

What about WinCE/WinMobile? Do not disturb the dead. The advent of Windows Phone 7 meant the end of WinMobile era - it is silly to invest time and money

BlackBerry platform Proprietary platform developed by RIM Originally enterprise oriented Based on JavaME specifications + proprietary APIs JavaME origin means presence of some elements from Stone Age Reveals its greatest value with BlackBerry Enterprise Server Tries to be consumer-friendly Devices are produced by one manufacturer so the fragmentation is limited

BlackBerry Enterprise Deployment Solution is secure and corporate-friendly Has unique synchronization capabilities Is backed with cellular operator support Provides means for developing stunning business applications

Pls, tell me more BlackBerry has far reacher set of APIs than JavaME But because of ... you may run into trouble Stone Age issues in 2010 (old Java 1.3, missing APIs) Relatively poor UI and UX Multiple compatibility issues (form-factors, input methods, API problems) Slower market adoption Platform doesn't enforce how the application should look like Nevertheless it is a mature and evolving platform Key strengths are its integration capabilities and multiple options when choosing application's format

Symbian as a platform What is Symbian? Disambiguation is needed A few key facts: As of now is backed only by Nokia Has a long history of development and support Has suffered from good deal of fragmentation Offers an enormous code library of components Developing is done with a dialect of C++ Entry-level is high Devices based on Symbian accounted for 43.5% of worldwide smartphone sales in 2010 Q2.

Confessions of a Symbian developer I have to use an anemic subtype of C++. Give me back destructors and STL (at least std::string)!!! How would you explain T-, R- and C- classes to your parents? I deal with ENORMOUS library which fails to be developer-friendly. I have to hand-code a lot of simple things again and again. Please, don't make me code UI again - my fingers hurt! Document-View, are you serious? Why can't I use threads in my application? Give me proper documentation! Please, make Nokia stop producing devices.

OK, what's the keynote? Apart from complexity Symbian is a mature platform Its key strengths: The large market share Continuous support from Nokia It is feature-rich and weaknesses: It may die in the next 2 years and may be replaced with something different It can't keep up with modern trends Nokia can't produce decent hardware It is over-engineered and complex The cost of development is high Resolution: do not invest in learning Symbian unless you absolutely have to

Android Android and the hype behind it Perception of the platform Target audience and positioning Is Android open? Consumers first, right Google? Reasons behind criticism. One big reason. Who makes money with Android? Should you go Android?

Advantages of Android It drives the innovation Productive development (in a sense) WebKit-powered browser Big community A lot of ways to position your app Integrate with everything A lot of passionate evangelists on the Web

and now disadvantages Fragmentation issues Sophisticated learning curve. The platform is not hard to grasp, but it is overdesigned. Platform beyond us all! Apps don't sell Did I mention fragmentation issues? It is not consumer oriented. Period.

I'm an engineer, tell me about development Android is free to develop for. No investments needed Lots of info on the Web, lots of books written Google documentation is really good SDK is packed with tools It is Java 5 (well, almost) - you can use any library on the market (well, almost) Google got you covered in terms of UI, resources, form-factors, security, debugging, testing and integration Google enforces strict application model - you have to keep a lot of rules in mind Framework is good but over-engineered - you need to learn things

What strategy does Google follow? Develop services (Search, GMail, Docs, Calendar...) Make consumers use them Sell ads HTML5 for the victory - start with Gears Develop power-features for Services Make businesses use the services Develop Chrome browser Light the hype fire over clouds + introduce AppEngine Embark for HTML5 Introduce Android. Tell the world it is open. Integrate it with Services Port power-features of Services to HTML5 Android has WebKit integrated, remember? Start integrating business and consumer oriented features Conquer tablets market

What strategy does Google follow? By reaching this point you have: Enormous consumers' base Hype over your innovations that lives on its own Next-gen development strategies that are right at your door: HTML5, Clouds People follow your advice and integrate with EVERYTHING Integration means massive exchange of data This all gives you freedom to...

What strategy does Google follow? SELL MORE ADS Android is a long term investment that will pay off brilliantly. Google doesn't need to manufacture devices, it needs consumers' base.

Present and future trends Cross-platform development (AppCelerometer, PhoneGap, ipFaces, etc) Web development Scripting Mobile Advertising More business-oriented applications on the market Tighter integration with cloud storages Mobile payments (NFC) Media applications (HD is here) Augmented reality apps

Cross-platform development You use web apis instead of native sdk HTML, CSS, Javascript Major players PhoneGap Rhodes Appcelerometer Titanium (+Aptana) IPFaces JQuery Mobile Device-specific features Sensors, vibration, touch, orientation Multimedia, camera File IO Phone APIs, etc

iOS Apple sells high-end devices to consumer and doesn't sell services 2007 was a good year to start invasion We know the original iPhone was a poor replacement for a cell phone But it was a great platform to run applications A brief overview of iOS versions - Apple had enough time to polish their platform iPhone 4 is a decent piece of hardware now It brings value to consumers and to businesses

Why is iOS platform valuable? If I were to develop a business app I would start with one for iPhone It has healthy ecosystem for building apps Support of multiple Exchange accounts HTML 5 engine Powerful WebView Push Remote wipe Multitasking iAd Gradual OTA updates same for consumer applications All cross-platform frameworks support iOS development Android doesn't have that much of a business value (as of Jan 2011)

General misconceptions about iOS development Objective-C is a nightmare - Not true and consequently hard to use API - Not true XCode is the worst IDE ever - It could be much better Memory management routines are of evil - False. They are much better designed in Objective-C than in C++. But you have to live with them It would take ages to develop an app - It depends I will be rejected in the first place because Apple is unreasonable - Read tips from Apple carefully

Modern mobile development overview

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