A modern tablet is something having sight, senses, feelings, able to orient itself in the environment and time and that can be controlled with just one button. iPad is widely used in many spheres of our life: for example, by travel agencies (for presenting possible routes and buying trips by one click) as well as by insurance agents and lawyers as iPad gives many possibilities for making and storing document forms and their own signatures and print-outs. The gadget is also useful for doctors for keeping and having at hand a great number of medical history sheets.
Moreover, iPad is likely to change the media industry and our opinion on educational services. Now many software development companies already create about thirds of all mobile apps for various educational purposes. Of course, experts agree that iPad won’t replace a common netbook. But it has a great potential. iPad doesn’t support Adobe Flash and thus users can’t watch videos but if they try iPad once, they’ll never leave it.
A user is online all the time and it gives unlimited possibilities for mobile application developers, marketers and other businessmen if they manage to make a profit on this.
But there are skeptics who think that iPad is only suitable for entertaining content and is not suitable for solving business tasks. They consider other mobile devices such as based on Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 and Android are more perspective.
Samsung has announced the launch of the new site intended for simplifying the process of mobile application development. The development of applications for Samsung phones, smartphones and communicators has become a popular project for individual users as well as for large software development companies.
Finding applications for various platforms and devices at one big and rapidly growing resource is very convenient. It has changed the conventional views on the online application support all over the world. Millions of users taking part in software development have made the company think over more exciting and advanced opportunities in future.
Samsung Developers has announced about the new site for mobile developers working with Samsung devices where everyone can get the latest news and updates, rich content and the forum for obtaining the technical support and it doesn’t matter at all whether you develop for Windows Mobile, Java platform or just simple widgets. Samsung Developers combines all the platforms into one unified resource with the latest SDK versions, training videos, hardware and software updates.
In the XXI century it’s impossible to imagine a person without a mobile phone. We have become accustomed to these devices so much that sometimes we feel awkward if left the phone at home. A mobile device is not simply a plastic case with buttons which can make calls, send SMS, take pictures, reproduce video and audio and work as a calculator. Modern mobile devices have all possible functions which we couldn’t even imagine before.
The technical development of mobile devices has led to the improved video chips, developing mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile), new updated mobile applications and so on. With the development of mobile technologies more and more software development companies are trying to develop modern, useful applications for mobile devices.
There are many different applications for entertainment, learning, or just for using in life. Before when mobile phones were not able to use and reproduce advanced graphics, applications were not very accurate. Now, users of mobile devices became more selective in this way because modern technologies let mobile app developers create applications at any taste.
According to analytics, more than half of Android applications at online apps stores are free, however, paid ones cost more than those for iPhone.
There are about 70,000 applications at the online store Android Market, about 57% of them are free. According to the analytical company Distimo, neither similar store can boast of the same share of free applications. That’s definitely good news for those who own an Android-based device or are going to buy new one.
In analytics’ opinion, it’s due to the technical limitations of the Android Market. Thus, only Android apps developers from 9 countries can add paid products and only the users from 13 countries can buy them whereas the sore operates in 46 countries. The additional restriction is the necessity to register at the Google Checkout service – only after this one can effect a purchase. At the biggest online apps store – Apple App Store – your account must be also linked to the iTunes Store that’s why in terms of convenience they are similar.
We have already written about web development for iPhone using html and js only. And today we want to tell you about jQTouch, a plug-in for well known Javascript-framework jQuery. It allows to create web applications for touch phones very easy – for all the phones with a touch screen and with finger-oriented interface. Such as iPhone, for example, and as based on Android HTC Hero, Dream, Magic, and a lot of different WM-communicators with different shells.
Let’s enumerate some features of jQTouch:
• It is very easy to control behavior of all the components.
• It is possible to create themes.
• There is some interaction with a phone (for example, you can determine its orientation).
• It supports animation and various interface features of iPhone.
• This is jQuery, and this says it all!
The plug-in is very nice, but still we do not have a full application at the output. Why? As we do not have access to such things as the accelerometer, vibration, sound and so on.
And, by the way, using such frameworks as PhoneGap you can transfer your mobile apps written with html and js to any other platform. For example, PhoneGap, supports iPhone, Android, Blackberry (OS 4.5), Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm and Maemo. But remember that developing iPhone applications you need MacBook, license and all that other stuff.
If to consider the near future of mobile application development (2-3 years ahead) Android OS seems to be a very interesting option. Why? Because number of devices based on this OS is growing before our eyes. Such a giant as Google develops and supports this system, so it guarantees that Android won’t be lost and won’t be forgotten.
Analysts forecast that Android devices will overtake iPhone and even Windows Mobile in 1012-1013 years. Also, we must note that Google begins to inform its users (we mean users of Android phones) that mobile software will be provided in both variants, free and paid, as well as the company expands the list of countries, where can be accepted payment, also it expands payment options for users. These steps will have a positive influence on turnover of those companies who provide application development for Android (developed mobile apps –> money).
Google Android wins our hearts by its open source: any developer can write apps without any licensing applications. All development tools are also available in source code and free.
All mobile apps developers always face choice of the right platform. The existing abundance of mobile operating systems can easily throw you into confusion. Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian — which of them is the best one? And moreover we should take into account a large number of the applications and frameworks developed by manufacturers of cell phones, communicators, PDAs and smartphones. Let’s come to know the particulars of all this mobile stuff.
First of all, a developer should define the main objectives:
professional development of commercial mobile software or amateur development (open source);
target audience;
competitive abilities and competitive environment.
All this seems rather complicated. With relation to monetization (commercial development) it’s better to choose such leading OSes as iPhone and Windows Mobile. This variant has some significant pluses. For example: a large number of users who are ready to pay for their software. But at the same time you will have to compete with more than 200,000 developed mobile applications for Windows Mobile and iPhone. And as is well known Apple follows a quite tough policy of apps submission. That is why it may take a long time before your new program is approved and appears in App Store.
The number of Apple iPhone users has exceeded the number of sold mobile devices based on Windows Mobile operating system.
According to a study conducted by the ComScore company, Apple iPhone smartphones are very popular among Americans older than 13 years. Moreover, sales of Apple phones in the U.S. have overtaken the popularity of mobile devices with Windows Mobile OS for the first time in the U.S. market. ComScore experts get the following results in October of this year:
8.9 million of iPhone users vs 7.1 million of WM-smartphones.
This ‘’alignment of forces’’ should be taken into account by mobile software development companies. Especially because such a result can’t be considered as fortuitousness. The number of Apple smartphone lovers is growing at high rates this year:
But a top position hasn’t changed. The Research In Motion company with its BlackBerry remains as undisputed leader in the U.S. smartphone market. The number of RIM customers has reached 14.9 million in October. So application development for BlackBerry can be considered as strategic direction for many software companies.
Eclipse Foundation has released a new version of Eclipse Pulsar, open tool for cross-platform mobile applications development.
RIM devices like Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson – In the near future Eclipse Pulsar will allow to develop mobile apps for these smartphones (RIM means “Research In Motion”, wireless communications).
Now creating applications for smartphones from different manufacturers mobile program developers have to use various SDK-sets corresponding to desired platform. It’s obvious that such conditions make their work more complicate, because they have to prepare different versions of the same program for different platforms (Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.).
Pulsar creates a unified environment based on Eclipse, which will allow developing multi-platform mobile applications. Now Pulsar supports SDK for Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson. However, developers still have to create separate versions of applications for different phones based on integrated Pulsar SDK.
Integrated development environment Eclipse Pulsar
Today Pulsar supports Java-phones. In the future it is expected to support RIM devices based on BlackBerry (Apple iPhone support is also possible).
In the XXI century it’s impossible to imagine a person without a mobile phone. We have become accustomed to these devices so much that sometimes we feel awkward if left the phone at home. A mobile device is not simply a plastic case with buttons which can make calls, send SMS, take pictures, reproduce video and audio and work as a calculator. Modern mobile devices have all possible functions which we couldn’t even imagine before.
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