...the dev ill.. in app heaven

....the times are changing. Gone are the days of good old one platform to drive your app home to revenue bliss. For better or for worse all the sleeping giants have awakened to the booming sounds of exploding apps and now we the people must choose where to invest. The cross platform development (platforms) have their own share of "diversity" from development script/language to the way platforms deliver native code making selection of platform still a task.

For truly native...how do we decide....our first trial market..by muscle, the might or the flight of the platform. In other words do we look at the mass (installed base) or the inertia (installed base plus growth, adaption rate), tool sets, capability, pipeline, partners. The answer is not a simple one as the variables change with demographics, location, consumer profiles as do the market numbers with the likes of Google, Apple, HP, Nokia, RIM, Samsung to name a few, bidding for the vote of confidence, along with the ever growing participants in the value chain. I, personally, want to make as simple as possible app, with easy as pie tools and then comfortably eat my cake of million or so downloads. If those sale revenues are not happening then a million impressions routed to hundred thousand downloads or launches should bring my minting dreams to fruition.

This is a catch 22 problem for late arrivals, whether apps and eco systems are driving hardware sales, or hardware sales are driving the platform adaption. In either case some table stake type of services/apps such as internet, search, location, messaging and, (soon) payment, on top of a slick device are the most basic requirements for building any momentum . The platform selection may not be as critical a bid for app stardom as it may seem in the deafening buzz (provided the technical capabilities of the platform cover the app requirements, and the surrounding network/eco system covers the rest). In all earnest would anybody in retail business be content with just one store selling their "goods" if they know that there is another store that caters to a different spectrum. Only if I am certain that the competing store with all its users is going to dust will I not create an app for it, even then, I will be most tempted to make an offering, and get me whatever revenue stream and recognition I can get, for certain level of risk. The landscape is not yet mature and betting on most big players in some order is reasonable as long as I have a quantifiable belief of the app demand, the platform's installed base, and that the platform tools will render my app to satisfaction.

Most would love cross platform development or web apps that can exploit the mobile device as native apps do, without ever needing to download 10 different SDKs. I believe that day will eventually come when thin clients and web services will provide acceptable speeds to lower level drivers for complicated renditions. That being said, as the hardware advances, so will the speed and complexity of native apps. A local app that can decode an image faster will out perform the app that relies on a remote computation of a sensor input; unless the app can do without the "local" data, or it needs computing power and database storage beyond what the device can muster by itself. An example will be augmented reality app that can scan a retail isle and give detail of every single item in that isle _ and then do it for every store in the mall, near run time.

I like diversity when it means more probability of success. From go to market perspective if my app doesn't do well in one platform and one set of consumers, there are other localities, and tastes spread across continents, which is enough for me to make a pact with the SDK devil, for the time being. But if I am a one man coding machine targeting "doable" apps then maybe diving into every single native platform may not be the best choice. I will choose from Appcelerator, Rhomobile, Phonegap or ...etc based on synergy between my application requirements, my programming strengths, and the target platform (A slightly older, but yet a very informative, comparison lies here
http://www.amlcode.com/2010/07/16/comparison-appinventor-rhomobile-phonegap-appcelerator-webview-and-aml/ )

newer comparisons here..

http://savagelook.com/blog/portfolio/a-deeper-look-at-appcelerator-and-phonegap

http://rhomobile.com/enterprise-development/Smartphone%20Frameworks%20Comparison%20Matrix.pdf

http://maniacdev.com/2010/01/iphone-development-windows-options-available/

Subway running late ...on data

I was on my way to down town and I did an adhoc survey of people around me, there were exactly two individuals indulged in some kind of one way information exchange with the paper based medium. Although the experience seemed immersive, the only interactive part of that primitive source was its rustling sound, along with added amusement of the dexterity needed for holding it and then moving to the next page simultaneously. This effort in the name of viva la paper is commendable in lieu of the fact that almost everyone else who was engaged in other occupations besides holding on to the rods or their seats or practicing the fine art of looking without feeling or expressing, had an electronic gadget of some sort and most of those "geraet" were, yes, mobile phones or likes (I really think we should stop calling them mobile phones, and go the German way of calling them "Handy's", or use an umbrella term of "handhelds" for all such devices).

After I was done amusing myself with the little survey to confirm mobile onslaught, which by the way is already history, I moved on to my second favorite past time; browsing the subway walls. Although I could see the extraordinary offers in wholesome ads targeted toward a broad, and I mean really broad audience, because you don't get any more diverse then the subway crowd in New York, my mind was lighted with flashing tiny bulbs.

Approximately 4 million use the NYC subways daily. For the sake of simplicity(or complexity) we will assume that a small percentage of them carry connectable devices and of those some (percent) actually use these living plastics while commuting, and then of those there are a few that would willingly consent to a data connectivity(with some strings) and therein lies our target audience. In all I would imagine that a million impressions, not of the same ad, but maybe of million different, but highly personalized, marketing messages (it sounds so less evil), can be served. And I haven't even touched the implications it will have on push content for digital signage spread across A,B,C ... and 1,2, 3 .....

The model to carry will be to allow free connection, with fine print or large print, doesn't matter, nobody reads them, that all data will be monitored, with some caveats to privacy, so on and so forth, and off course the price for your free ride to browsing, emailing and all the, good, data centric activities will be, that you will bear the banner, or the inserts, or occasional SMS or two. And if you don't like it, well than pay per minute or per gallon of data.

Since the big carriers don't get the signal down there, I might be willing to comply with free Wi-Fi even with some timed and targeted marketing, or pay for some, on demand, minutes of connectivity, watch a small show, finish up on a movie, browse through shopping, look up the map; there are just so many pieces of internet heaven that can be had with a little connectivity.

So what is keeping the MTA from buying some wholesale broadband, and taking us for a ride; nothing actually. I believe the things are already in some kind of works, so get your marketing bows ready for some target practice.