A SearchSOA.com E5book ED LETTER 0 9 CHAPTER 1 D Shifting ground f for mobile W development ! j CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile with Windows . ? u CHAPTER 3 Create SmartPhone 2 X apps using JavaScript f CHAPTER 4 IBM preps mobile SOA connection CHAPTER 5 Mobile development resource Mobile ApplicationDevelopment: guide Making it easier for developers r 1 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • SEARCHSOA.COM Ed Letter Developers forge ahead with mobile applications By Jack Vaughan ED LETTER CHAPTER 1 workers pecking away at handheld Shifting ground Mobile applications for mobile devices. Although these machines development have not only have tons more memory than in the past, they still are basically working piqued the interest remotely, hitting on a server some - CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile of developers, but where, and dealing with the world via with Windows services. also of the average Behind the scenes will emerge a CHAPTER 3 cell phone user. whole new class of mobile app devel - Create opment tools, writes John K. Waters in SmartPhone Learn what all the apps using our lead story, “Mobile app dev trends: JavaScript fuss is about. Making life easier for developers.” Meanwhile, writer Patrick Meader discusses transfer Microsoft develop - CHAPTER 4 IBM preps ers in “Goin’ mobile with Windows.” mobile SOA MOBILE APPLICATIONS have piqued the Technology writer George Lawton connection interest of developers. First, the talks about JavaScript taking advan - iPhone redefined what a phone was: it tage of iPhone resources in his piece CHAPTER 5 looked a lot like a Web browser, really. “Create smartphone apps using Java- Mobile development Then, Apple opened an iPhone App Script.” Writer Rich Seeley adds IBM’s resource store that promised developers an input in the mobile community in guide opportunity to write and sell an appli - “IBM preps mobile SOA connection.” cation to a new mass audience. The There is also plenty of information in year 2009 looks gloomy for mobile the Mobile development resource phone sellers. But converged mobile guide. I devices, the kind the iPhone epito - mizes, are expected to fare far better Jack Vaughan oversees editorial planning and than traditional ones. coverage for SearchSOA.com. He has written about computer hardware and software for such publica - Clearly, when one is on the road, tions as Software Magazine, Digital Design and EDN one sees more and more knowledge News Edition. 2 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • SEARCHSOA.COM Chapter 1 Shifting ground for mobile development By John K. Waters ED LETTER CHAPTER 1 downloads from the App Store Shifting ground The emergence of a for mobile exceeded 800 million. That’s only development new type of mobile eight months after the store opened in July 2008. According to the report, app development tool the total will likely surpass one billion CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile is aimed at develop - before the store is even a year old. with Windows Of course, the App Store’s success ers looking to expoit didn’t go unnoticed by Apple’s com - petitors. Mobile app developers will CHAPTER 3 the App Stores and Create soon have access to similar market SmartPhone their monetization apps using models from a range of mobile plat - JavaScript models. forms, including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry App World, Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile, CHAPTER 4 IBM preps Nokia’s Ovi, Palm’s App Catalog, and mobile SOA MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPERS have Google’s Android. connection always trod on shifting ground; it’s the The advent of these mobile-focused nature of the terrain. Lately, though, app marketplaces has sparked what CHAPTER 5 the mobile app landscape has begun Jeffrey S. Hammond, principal analyst Mobile to shake with seismic intensity. For - in the application development group development resource rester analyst Neil Strother says we’re at Forrester, calls “a race to lower the guide in the midst of an “app frenzy,” thanks barriers to entry for developers,” largely to the proliferation of Apple’s which is likely to have a big impact on enormously popular iPhone device mobile app developers. The clearest and its rapidly evolving App Store evidence of this trend, he says, can be concept. seen in the emergence of a new type In a recent industry report (“Is an of mobile app development tool aimed iPhone App Right for You?”), Strother at developers looking to exploit the cited some stunning statistics: At the app stores and their new monetization time of this writing (mid-May), total models. 3 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • SEARCHSOA.COM Chapter 1 “These aren’t so much specialized project is anything but modest. “The mobile development tools as tools Web is moving off the desktop and that appeal to Web developers,” Ham - into the pockets of people all over the mond explains. “I think the long term trend here is toward an extension of Web development in the mobile app “The long term trend space.” is toward an extension Hammond points to two examples of Web development in ED LETTER of this trend that are worth watching: Nitobi’s PhoneGap is an open source the mobile app space.” CHAPTER 1 dev tool designed for building mobile —JEFFREY S. HAMMOND , Shifting ground apps with JavaScript and HTML. The principal analyst in the application for mobile development group at Forrester development tool is designed for the Web develop - er who wants to build mobile applica - tions in HTML and JavaScript while CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile still taking advantage of the core fea - with Windows tures in the iPhone, Android, and world,” the company writes on the Blackberry SDKs.” PhoneGap community Web site. Based in Vancouver, British Colum - “Phones are the new window to the CHAPTER 3 Create bia, Nitobi’s hope for the PhoneGap Internet and, currently, they are sec - SmartPhone apps using JavaScript FIGURE 1: Which application types are you working on? CHAPTER 4 IBM preps mobile SOA 90% connection I Web applications, 80% excluding e-commerce Web sites 70% CHAPTER 5 I Content management Mobile 60% I Business process development management resource guide 50% I Infrastructure I Mobile applications 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 4 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • SEARCHSOA.COM Chapter 1 ond class. PhoneGap aims to move coders. your device to a nice first class win - Mobile developers are also likely to dow.” feel the fallout from what Hammond Another toolmaker that fits this sees as a battle brewing among the trend, Hammond says, is Rhomobile, a aforementioned smartphone operat - ing systems, and what may well be the ultimate demise of the feature phone “Phones are the new (essentially anything that isn’t a ED LETTER window to the Internet smartphone). “As Moore’s law has put increasingly capable devices in the CHAPTER 1 and, currently, they hands of a majority of consumers,” he Shifting ground says, “it cuts into feature phone mar - for mobile are second class. development PhoneGap aims to ket share.” Hammond hastens to add to that move your device to a list of major smartphones, Palm’s new CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile nice first class window.” webOS, which was unveiled in April with Windows —PHONEGAP community web site at the annual Web 2.0 conference. Palm’s senior VP, Michael Abbott, made a direct pitch to developers dur - CHAPTER 3 Create ing his conference keynote. “Develop - SmartPhone ers are an incredibly important part of apps using JavaScript Cupertino, CA-based startup offering the webOS ecosystem,” he said. a new open source mobile application “We’re eager to get the [Mojo] SDK framework. Called Rhodes, the frame - into their hands, and are very excited CHAPTER 4 IBM preps work is designed for quick builds of to work with developers to make this mobile SOA native mobile apps for smartphone unique development environment connection OSes (the company lists iPhone, even better.” BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Sym - “Unique development environ - CHAPTER 5 bian, and Android ). According to the ments” is the problem, Hammond Mobile company, the apps are not mobile says. “The bottom line is that mobile development resource Web apps but “true native device development is a mess,” he says. guide applications” that “work with synchro - “With six different OS options, it will nized local data and take advantage of get more confusing before it gets sim - device capabilities such as GPS, PIM pler.” contacts and camera.” Rhomobile’s CEO, Adam Blum, says that 90 percent of the apps currently INDUSTRY INITIATIVE built with the Rhodes framework are MAY CLEAN THINGS UP being developed by ISVs. Ten percent, Bola Rotibi, principal analyst at Mace - he says, are coming from enterprise hiter Ward-Dutton, also sees evidence 5 MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT • SEARCHSOA.COM Chapter 1 of this “race” to lower entry barriers to but it’s an example of a simple tool for the new mobile app markets in a re- dealing with increasing demands for cent move by some of the big mobile sophisticated content on mobile platform players. The Eclipse Founda - devices, she says. tion’s Pulsar initiative might well be viewed as an attempt to clean up that mobile-dev mess for developers. “Mobile application Launched in March, Pulsar is an developers are being ED LETTER industry initiative aimed at creating a called upon to write standard mobile-app development applications that use CHAPTER 1 tools platform based on the open- Shifting ground source Eclipse framework. The list of all this rich content, but for mobile development charter members includes Motorola, the tools are emerging Nokia, Genuitec, IBM, RIM, and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. to make it all much CHAPTER 2 Goin’ mobile The initiative’s goal is to define a com - easier.” with Windows mon set of Eclipse-based tools in a —BOLA ROTIBI , principal analyst packaged distribution that can inter - at MacehiterWard-Dutton operate with the SDKs provided by the CHAPTER 3 Create handset makers.