Mobile Application Development

1
Mobile Application Development
2
Agenda

• Emerging mobile services
• Limitations of current technology
• Developing mobile applications using Eximius
  mBaze framework
• Bookstore service an example application

3
Demand Drivers

• Consumer applications
• Communication
• Entertainment
• Enterprise applications
• Collaboration
• Integration with Personal Information Management
  Systems (PIM)
• New application frontiers
• More capable devices open new possibilities

4
Consumer Applications

• Messaging
• Text messaging is the top data service world
  wide
• Driven by convenience and simplicity
• Users want more
• Use of picture and video messaging significantly
  increases data traffic
• Game downloads
• Driven by availability of better devices and
  increasing familiarity with mobile internet
• On the phone games are fast, convenient, have
  nice user interface
• Information Retrieval
• From service provider to users
• Local news/weather/traffic alert subscriptions
  via text messaging
• From users to service providers
• Surveys, polls, discussions

5
Enterprise Applications

• In the enterprise PIM is the king
• Dedicated devices such as RIM BlackBerry widely
  used since they provide seamless information
  sharing with the desktop
• Always-on pushed-based communication eliminate
  the need for inconvenient synchronization
• Increasingly consumer devices come with similar,
  low-end, built-in PIM software
• BUT inconvenient
• Requires synchronization
• Difficult to share information with the desktop
• Closed platform, non-extendable
• HOWEVER, they are programmable
• J2ME, Symbian Platform, Microsoft Compact .NET
• It has become possible to have enterprise PIM
  functionality on low consumer devices!

6
Emerging Applications

• Location Based Services
• Users are already showing interest as illustrated
  by increasing use of text message alerts on local
  news/weather/traffic reports
• Location information available on increasing
  number of devices
• Mobile Payments
• Mobile Ticketing

7
Mobile application characteristics

• Programmability
• Potential for creating more responsive
  applications
• (combats bad perception left by WAP)
• Critical personal data
• Every application will access personal user
  profile in some form
• Customizations, preferences, authentication
  information, personal information (contacts,
  tasks, appointments, etc.)
• Mobile payments (credit cards, account
  information, e-tickets)
• Asynchronous Communication
• Most applications are best described as
  event-based?core of the application logic is to
  react to some external events.

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Agenda

• Emerging mobile services
• Limitation of current technology
• Developing mobile applications using Eximius
  mBaze framework
• Bookstore service an example application

9
Current Technology

• SMS
• request-reply text applications
• WAP
• Web applications
• J2ME
• Java applications

10
Example Application

• Mobile Payments
• Access to the Internet via a mobile device to
  buy and sell services
• Examples mobile banking, brokerage services,
  bill payments,
• information services

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Using SMS

• Insecure
• Cumbersome to use
• Users need to remember cryptic SMS commands
• Cannot store credit card information on the
  device
• Limited extensibility
• Payment history, merchant incentives, etc.

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Using WAP

• Equivalent to web payments
• Slow as pages making up user interface need to be
  downloaded for every payment
• Request-reply interaction incompatible with Bill
  notification
• Limited ability to save information locally
• Extendable
• Can be developed and deployed very quickly

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Using J2ME

• Insecure
• HTTP request-reply problem
• (same as for WAP)
• Requires considerable software development
• More difficult to deploy
• Simple, intuitive, pleasing user interface
  possible
• Very extendable

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Developing Mobile Applications

• Lower your cost of development
• Almost all web/desktop/enterprise applications
  are developed using some framework
• Mobile Apps are the same, dont reinvent the
  wheel!
• Advantages of a framework
• The infrastructure is already built for you
• The infrastructure if maintained for you
• You can concentrate on developing your
  application

15

• Thank you