3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Usability Customisation
• From High-End to Mass Market Devices
• Vienna
• 8th to 10th of November 2005

2
3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• What is involved in developing an application on
  the J2ME platform?
• Rough production flow

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• continued

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Actual situation
• Complex production flow can only be mastered
  through optimized and partly automated processes
  and a set of custom tools all based on years of
  experience!
• Tight schedule, basically three phases
• Planning ( 2 weeks)
• Base programming, depending on the games
  complexity ( 1 4 months T3 3,5 months 20
  man months)
• From ref. builds to release ( 3-4 weeks)
• Marketing material and partner styles ( 2-3
  weeks)
• A lot of specialized people involved
  (Designer(s), Programmer(s), Graphic Artist(s),
  Sound Designer(s), Porting programmer(s),
  Tester(s), Marketing)
• Biggest challenge
• The increasing number of supported handsets over
  the last 3 years
• 2003 4 handsets ( 80 coverage of the European
  J2ME market)
• 2004 30 handsets
• 2005 60 handsets
• 2006e 100 handsets and still increasing
• These numbers dont include compatible handsets
  (e.g. Nokia Series 40 handsets are only included
  as "one device")!

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Evaluating the difference between J2ME handsets
  in the context of application development and
  deployment
• Hardware
• Keys
• Number of keys with different functions (e.g.
  Navkey not on all handsets some Navkeys are
  2-way, others 4- or 5-way etc.)
• Layout (e.g. Nokia 3650, Siemens SX1)
• Usability in J2ME (e.g. Siemens SL65 or 7210
  sidekeys cant be accessed from Java)

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Display
• Size
• Resolution
• Number of colours
• Brightness/contrast (e.g. N-Gage quite dark)
• Quality (e.g. 7210 very blurry, lags)
• Processor (Performance)
• Sound chip
• RAM
• ROM
• Graphics accelleration hardware

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Software
• Firmware
• Often many versions with different behaviour,
  bugs and capabilities (even after the release of
  a mass market handset, e.g. T610 very slow
  painting, transparency problems in first FW
  version)
• Developers have no information what exact
  firmware versions have been delivered from
  manufacturers to operators (operator variants)
• Many different JVM (Java Virtual Machine)
  implementations
• A multitude of JVM implementation bugs and
  problems
• Functionality not implemented or not behaving
  according to SUNs specifications (e.g. Sound,
  which is a always big troublemaker
  setMediaTime is used to start a sound from a
  specific point, if you want to play a sound from
  the beginning on a 6600 you have to call that
  method before and on the K500 you have to call it
  after starting the actual sound)
• Phones often have features that are not
  accessible in J2ME (missing or malfunctional JSR
  implementations)
• Special vendor-/device specific APIs (Vodafone)
• Very few phones have debugging functionality
  (e.g. possible with T610 via datacable)

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Deployment
• Many different types
• Datacable
• IRDA
• Bluetooth
• OTA (Over The Air)
• Some handsets support multiple transfer types,
  but many only OTA -gt takes a lot of time to
  transfer to the phone and generates a lot of
  additional costs per port! (Device vendors could
  make other transfer types available at least for
  developers)
• BT / Datacable are the fastest ways

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• "Write Once, Run Anywhere" how far along is the
  industry in this respect?
• We are far away from that!
• Soft- and hardware differ
• Many different versions of content like graphics,
  sound and data have to be produced
• Device problems ? code workarounds (e.g.
  linebreaks in forms dont work on several devices
  (GX10, Nec devices) ? own method needed ?
  increases jar-size!)
• Expertise has to be developped and documented
  (time and money consuming)
• This thesis could only work, if all handsets are
  the same (hardware- and software-wise)
• We are not developing for one platform, but for
  more than 60! (E.g. console-game developers only
  have one platform like the Gameboy.)
• There are efforts to set standards (e.g. Open
  Mobile Alliance or Mobile Entertainment Forum),
  but we are still at the beginning.
• Standards would have to be enforced, in order to
  have an impact. But who could do that?

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Example "Townsmen 3"
• 54 devices
• 10 hours av. needed to port from a reference
  release to another device
• 3-6 hours of testing needed for each release
• 4 languages (for release) more to be released
  soon
• 3 sets of graphics due to display size
  differences and memory constraints
• 2 sets of level-data due to memory constraints
• 14 sets of sounds

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• How can the industry facilitate the development
  of compelling applications from third party
  developers?
• Device Manufacturers
• Early access to handsets (min. 4 weeks prior to
  retail)
• Actual situation
• Buying (gets very expensive concerning the ever
  increasing number of handsets that need to be
  supported)
• Borrowing ( sometimes begging/chasing) ?
  complicated and time consuming/expensive
• More than one single prototype (minimum 2
  devices) for production
• Early access to info about the handsets and known
  problems
• Setting of standards for the VM implementation
  (VM verified) that are enforced by committee
• Technical support for devices with available
  contact persons in case of problems
• Guaranteed compatibility lists (some
  manufacturers dont even know themselves which of
  their devices are compatible!)

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3rd Mobile Application Platforms and OS

• Operators
• Easy to use upload facilities (reducing
  complicated upload interfaces)
• Definition of File Style Standards (File naming,
  JAD entries, etc.)
• Definition of Marketing Style Standards
• Collective goal of device manufacturers,
  operators and content developers
• Increase surplus value of devices and thus
  increase profit!
• Developing content is time critical
• The most profit concerning content is made during
  the first months of a devices lifecycle!

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Contact

• www.handy-games.com GmbH
• i_Park Klingholz 13
• 97232 Giebelstadt
• Germany
• Christopher Kassulke
• Phone [phone] - 11
• Fax [phone] - 19
• christopher.kassulke_at_handy-games.com
• http//www.handy-games.com