Received via e-mail from J. Gerry Purdy, VP & Chief Analyst of Frost & Sullivan.
Why Mobile Clients Are Important
July 2008
It has been argued that with a good 3G network and a web browser, you don’t need to develop applications specifically for wireless handsets. Mobile developers should just write web applications for mobile and let mobile users access these applications using their mobile web browser. Since most new phones have 3G technology with faster wireless data communications speeds (typically over one megabyte per second download speeds), all mobile applications could be Web-based. This would maximize the efficiency of application development: developers would write them once with perhaps some adjustments for different classes of wireless handsets.
An alternate argument is for developers to create custom applications that run as a mobile client on the wireless handset. This takes more work as the application has to take into account the specs for the wireless handset and the operating environment such as WAP, BREW, Windows Mobile, RIM, iPhone or Palm. I believe that custom applications yield the best user experience in mobile. Here’s why.
There are lots of ways to develop and run applications on mobile devices. Developers have to define their target markets and then determine the devices and wireless operators that will yield the best sales. Writing a custom mobile application can narrow the available audience, since it will only operate on a limited number of handsets and likely only on one network. Most developers are drawn to control environments such as Java, BREW, WAP, RIM, Windows Mobile and Palm that will offer wide distribution. It takes a lot of engineering resources to develop for, say, Java on one handset and then for BREW on another. However, developing custom mobile client applications provides the best user experience when compared with Web applications run on the mobile device.
Some mobile environments offer a more pleasing user experience than others. For example, most SmartPhones have larger displays and an OS with excellent development resources that help enhance the user experience.
Take the iPhone and the coming App Store. There were only a few custom applications there were written for the first iPhone – such as weather, stocks, etc. (see visual), but third parties were not able to develop custom applications for the iPhone until recently.
On July 11, Apple will launch the App Store, an iTunes-like store for iPhone applications. See the example of how the App Store will work.
The advantages of custom applications include a better user interface, access to remote data, a ‘mash up’ of data from multiple sources, which is almost impossible to do with Web applications for mobile.
Here’s another example: Sharpcast has a well-written web application that will allow you to view files backed up on the Web. And, they also have a mobile application that allows you to view files on your phone such as photos. But notice the visual from Sharpcast. This mobile client shows the most important part of the image on the phone (at a resolution that is appropriate for the phone). If you accessed the same site using a mobile browser, the image would be distorted and much smaller.
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A mobile web browser is important, however, for finding information on an ad hoc basis. It’s just that web applications work well on a PC, but mobile works best when the application has been customized for the wireless handset.
Let me point out that the services are also enhanced by local applications. Services are applications that have some continual operation with the world outside the device, e.g. a stock service that monitors stock prices or a weather service that interacts with the weather resources.
Nokia’s Ovi (not yet in the US) is designed to provide services to users of Nokia phones (and, likely at some point, phones of other vendors as well). I believe it can become both a store to sell applications (like a game), sell data (e.g. a ring tone) or service (as in an off-road mapping service).
What about feature phones? Games can be developed using Java, but there’s a lot of engineering resources required to make them work on smaller displays and then port them to other feature phones.
However, due to Moore’s Law, robust operating systems over time will become the majority of platforms running on phones – even those that cost under $100. This will make it easier to develop custom mobile applications.
Due to the launch of the Apple App Store later this week and richer operating environments in a larger number of phones, custom applications (and their associated services) will become dominant on phones over the coming five years.
It won’t be long until you’ll scout out the applications that you want on the Web and designate them to be downloaded to your phone. That process is going to greatly enhance the value of the wireless handset for all of us.
Written by:
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J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D.
VP & Chief Analyst
Mobile & Wireless
Frost & Sullivan
Keywords: 3G, App Store, Apple, BREW, Frost & Sullivan, Gerry Purdy, Inside Mobile and Wireless, J2ME, Mobile & Wireless, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Clients, Nokia, Ovi, Palm, RIM, Sharpcast, WAP, Windows Mobile, iPhone, mobile browser, J. Gerry Purdy
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