Mobile Productivity Blog

New mobile technologies can spell trouble unless you've got the right tools.

Recently we’ve seen dramatic evolution of mobile technologies, which begs the question, how does a company keep up with all the new devices and operating systems hitting the market?

Many companies have mobile applications that they use to interact with customers, partners, and employees. When things change in the industry (which we know happens on a constant basis) it makes it difficult to ensure that those applications will work with the newest technologies. With mobility comes a sense of urgency, and when your users procure the newest device or OS and your application does not comply, you have a problem.

When these complications arise, if an organization has built their own applications in-house, it can become quite difficult. Upgrading applications for new device types and operating systems is typically time-consuming and labor intensive. And for companies that built and released one-off iPhone apps within the last year, re-creating those applications for BlackBerry, Android and iPad is a tremendous amount of work.

In just the past couple of months we have had multiple device and OS releases including Froyo (Google’s Android OS), BlackBerry OS 6, Apple 4.0, and Windows Phone 7, as well as many devices with different screen resolutions, features and hardware specific to those new operating systems. As each of these big-players adds more to their repertoire (both hardware and software), applications need to accommodate the latest and greatest features and functionality. But keeping up with these advancements are tough. Each time a new device is added or an OS is changed, the code needs to be updated.

The key in this situation is being able to quantify the cost of maintaining your current applications while developing new ones to meet the needs of users a month, 6 months and even a year from now. If you’re going to develop multiple applications for multiple device types, then choosing the right development tools is key to containing costs and expanding your mobile applications offerings. That’s where a mobile application development platform comes into play: use it to configure one application and run that app on multiple operating systems. Device compatibility and ongoing support for the next generation of devices and operating systems is baked-in to the solution.

By utilizing a mobile application development platform, you can rest easy. Companies that provide those technologies exist solely to simplify your mobile development process by making it fast and easy to update applications and by ensuring compatibility with new technologies as they emerge onto the market. Pyxis Mobile currently provides a multi-platform solution that allows you to easily deploy a custom application on Blackberry, iPhone, Android, and WinMo. Can your app do that?

Total Cost of Ownership & The 4 Factors of Mobile App Development

The total cost of ownership for mobile applications is driven by four very real and very important factors that need to be evaluated by any organization seeking to deploy an enterprise grade application.

The Four Factors:

• Development
• Deployment
• Maintenance
• Upgrades of applications over time
  

With every new technological development in the mobile industry, users become more demanding and corporations increasingly rely on mobile applications to serve key roles in customer service, sales force automation, field services and direct marketing. The following factors should be considered in order to estimate the TCO over time of any mobile initiative:

1. Cost of developing a single application for a single device type – i.e. the cost required to develop a marketing application for only the iPhone
2. Continued support, upgrades and administration of an application
3. Expansion of an application to multiple device types and/or device platforms – i.e. a sales force automation application that works on BlackBerrys and developing it for the iPhone as well
4. Development of additional applications for other user groups – i.e. take your sales force automation application (which is your first app) and integrate it with account data to build an app that gives clients access to their own account information (two), then use account activity and transaction information to power a marketing application that incentivizes clients to drive more business to your firm (three). And don't forget your managers and executives - they need an app that takes sales data and rolls it up into performance reports.
   

Cost of developing a single application for a single device type:

 

The costs are straight forward and somewhat simple to estimate depending upon whether or not a company decides to outsource development or build an application in house. There are plenty of boutique firms that companies can hire to develop a custom application and they will quote a price up front based on the scope of the project.Alternatively, a company can develop a mobile application in house. This would mean that the cost is based primarily on internal operating costs with marginal budget required for hardware. What is the best approach for your company? Before allocating resources to the development of a single application for one device type, like many companies have done with iPhone apps, consider your long term mobile needs. A company should ask itself these questions:

• Is this the only mobile application we're going to develop?
• What about other device types?
• If we’re developing an iPhone app, should we make it available on Android (the operating system by Google)? And what about BlackBerry since it still holds 42% of the US market?

 If you think that you'll need to develop more than one application or that you'll need to deploy to more than one device type, then it's worth considering a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP). A development platform will enable you to cost effectively build and deploy an entire suite of mobile applications for a variety of user groups. ...but I'll go into some more detail on that topic in my next blog!

Integrated Applications - What will we see next?

Smartphones have been a ubiquitous part of our culture for what seems like forever (okay, maybe it just seems like forever to us Generation Y'ers, but long enough that we can justify saying things like “Do you remember when...?”). Popularity of these smart devices has grown exponentially in the past few years in the general consumer market. In the past smartphones were predominantly used by business professionals who needed access to data while they were traveling. Instead of carrying multiple items, like a cell phone, a wireless networking card and a laptop, to organize their life, professionals could use one device to stay connected to the office.

Now consumers have started to demand more out of these devices, showing their need to stay connected to people and information in their lives. Smartphones do a great job of satisfying those needs and once people make the leap from cell phone to smartphone (whether it be iPhone, BlackBerry, WinMo, or the new Android devices) they don't go back. Personally, I have found that having a smartphone simplifies and streamlines my life, but my devices haven't always organized information in the most convenient way. Now we're seeing that integration and organization in mobile software applications and also on the OS level with the Android and Windows Phone 7. The new trend is towards data-driven navigation that integrates multiple data sources and seamlessly organizes information.

For example, instead of having multiple email and social networking accounts linked individually to your phone, ALL of your messages are organized in one location. This can include device specific messages (i.e. BlackBerry Messages), SMS, MMS, various email accounts, instant messengers, Facebook alerts and messages, Twitter @mentions and direct messages, and much more (depending on your device and applications you have installed). Smartphone developers have seen this trend of convenience in the market and have been working it into all of the newest designs.

In the past, consumers were happy enough having a device that could do a bunch of basic stuff, like connect to email and organize contacts. But now people want to have everything and do everything, all at the same time and all at a fast speed. They don’t want to log in and out of many different applications in order to run others. They don't want to manage multiple email inboxes. They don't want to have to read an email from a friend in one location and their recent twitter update in another. They DO want simplicity, which in the case of mobile software comes in the form of integration.

What’s the easiest way for an application to meet consumer demand? Well, most application-specific mobile apps aren’t advanced enough to properly integrate and organize data - but a few can. The most successful and beneficial apps allow you access to update and read social media as part of an intuitive workflow. For example, with well-built mobile software for conferences, not only can you see event, speaker and exhibitor information, but with integrated feeds to Twitter you can live tweet and follow pertinent conversations involving attendees, all without exiting the conference app. Be on the look out for integrated applications like this - it’s what the consumer want so the industry is going to provide it.

Right now, Pyxis Mobile provides integrated applications of all kinds. For example, in our UpperClass application, we provide Facebook integration so that students can update their status without having to exit out and then open another software application. Think about this, you’re a student registering for classes via UpperClass and you want to let your friends know what you’re taking for classes or ask them what they’re taking. Without leaving the application you can post to Facebook and immediately skip to the next item you're working on. There is no interruption of work-flow.

Another great example of social media integration is Pyxis Mobile's latest App from Scratch V winners who built a Boston Marathon Tracker Application. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, it even integrates Foursquare so that supporters can monitor their friends and family members who are running the race, track their positions and times, and send messages or alerts through all the social networking sites. How cool is that!!?

Where do you think the industry is going? What do you think the next move is going to be? Are you and your applications ready for integration?

App from Scratch V - Utilizing Pyxis Mobile 7.0

With the release of Pyxis Mobile 7.0 came an opportunity to engage the developers at Pyxis Mobile in App from Scratch V! Everyone here at the office loves the App from Scratch contests. It not only fosters teamwork, but encourages our developers to think outside the box.

Essentially, the rules of the game are 1. No coding (you have to use AppStudio to build your app) and 2. You have 48 hours to complete the application. To read more about it, check out the press release.

Yesterday, seven teams presented their hard work to us (we had live tweeting during the event, check out the hashtag #AFS2010). There was a wide variety of applications created, each team brought something different to the table.

Grand Prize: Pyxis Athletic Association (PAA) - Boston Marathon Tracker

This application was designed to track runners during the Boston Marathon while integrating social media clients. Developed for both the BlackBerry and the iPhone, the Boston Marathon Tracker allows the user to see the leader board, split by Men, Women, and Wheelchair. There is also a key section that makes this application even more useful: the Friends tracker. Within this section where friends who are running the race have been added, the user can click on them, find out where they are currently via GPS, their pace, and an estimated finishing time.

The social media aspect of this application is the fluid integration of Foursquare, Twitter, and TwitPic. From within the application, users can Tweet about the race and also follow the corresponding hashtag, take a picture and send it to TwitPic which then puts it in the “Race Images” feed, and also use their Foursquare account to find stores and restaurants around your current race location. Features from Pyxis Mobile 7.0 used for this application were: composite screens, regions, cover flow, background color, gradients, borders, content authentication, asynchronous images, and iPhone 7.0 features were start-up on any screen, device ID authentication, and image buttons.

    

First Runner Up: Team 44 - 43things.com (Mobile Extension)

This application was designed to mobilize a website that claims to be the “World’s largest goal setting community” which asks the question: What do you want to do with your life? Our developers saw that their mobile site was not very user friendly and took that opportunity to create this application with not only Facebook but Twitter integration on the BlackBerry.

Within this application, users can find people and goals. They can use the Zeitgiest feature which shows which goals are trending and popular and how many users have that goal. After having logged in, it will take one click to add one of these as your goal, while also publishing your new goal to Facebook and Twitter.

Features from Pyxis Mobile 7.0 used for this application were: cover flow, asynchronous images, regions, and content authentication.

 

 

Second Runner Up: Unicorn Factory - goodguide.com (Mobile Extension)

This application was designed to mobilize a website that provides health and safety information and ratings for products. This application is great while shopping to determine whether the choices the use has made are safe, healthy, or green. Features of this iPhone and BlackBerry ready application are browsing, searching, and finding related items. Once the item is found, the user can see the environmental, social and health ratings and nutritional information if applicable. Another informative resource available is the RSS feed for the Good Guide blog.

Features from Pyxis Mobile 7.0 used for this application are: cover flow, asynchronous images, composite screens, gradients, and buttons.

Those were the winners, now, time for the other applications!

Know When to Hold Em - Audiucate

This application was developed for use on the iPad and BlackBerry by children. It is a learning tool which can be customized with the user’s voice to be familiar to the child. Creates a flash card game which the user can assess and add more questions to focus on the child’s educational needs. Includes built in voice prompts and encouragement (hand clapping).

Rick Rollers - Music Genome Project

This application pulls data from last.fm and music-map.com to categorize music by artists and related artists. It was developed to run on an Android device and includes cover flow and click to purchase (at amazon.com).

 

PSG Leftovers - Connect4 - Victorious Secret

This application fulfills the needs and does away with the frustration of wanting a cross-platform multi-player game by running on iPhone and BlackBerry. It is the classic game of Connect 4. Features live, fast updating, regions, auto polling, composite screens and buttons.

Needs Coffee - The Mallbilizer

This application can be used to find malls near any zip code, which stores are at those malls, what promotions or events occurring and when, and allows the user to purchase or re-charge a Simon Mall Vise gift card. All data is pulled from simon.com. The application has been skinned and utilizes cover flow.

 

There you have it! Pyxis Mobile's App from Scratch V winners and participants. You think this is good, wait til you see what they can do in more than 48 hours!

Ask the Experts - 2010 Industry Landscape

This week I had the opportunity to sit down with a couple of experts here at Pyxis Mobile.  We’ll be speaking with Pyxis Mobile president and CTO Todd Christy and Pyxis Mobile’s director of software, Arun Nagarajan. I set out on a mission to pick their brains about what is going on in the mobile industry and where 2010 will bring us. I found out that it’s true, great minds DO think alike!

We’re two months into 2010, so, I had to ask them: "What’s going to happen this year in the industry?" Todd and Arun were able to give me a little insight on what they think this year has to offer us. Todd describes 2010 as a “watershed year” for Android. That there will be clear signals as to who the audience is for these devices, what level they are at, and what their market share will be. He predicts that hardware innovation will pick up faster than usual, resulting in more devices being released. More hybrids, slates, smartphones, and targeted purpose devices. And changes in their OS will make RIM’s user experience one to envy.

Arun sees three industry leaders who have the most momentum and hold the most market share: RIM, Apple, and Google/Android. He predicts that the weaker ones will fall off the radar (WinMo, Palm, Nokia, Linux [LIMO being the weakest]). Rather than being application heavy, he thinks 2010 will be a trend toward a better constructed mobile web. Right now, the application stores provide reviews, discoverability, and monetization. He believes that the mobile web will take the fore front and will start to provide these benefits and that rich client applications will slip into the background.

So, what are your opinions of 2010? Share them and any questions you may have with us in the comments below!

Tomorrow Todd and Arun sound off about what everyone can look forward to from Pyxis Mobile in 2010. Come back and join in on the conversation!

Chapter 6: Embracing Enterprise Mobility – The Battle: In-House vs. Purchased

For nine days, Pyxis Mobile's Mobile Productivity Blog will be publishing a series of articles providing the case for enterprise mobility, along with the technical considerations and evaluation criteria for selecting a mobile partner.

As you answer the questions mentioned in the last chapter, you’ll gain an understanding of what type of solution is right for your organization, and must then decide whether to buy a packaged mobile application or build a proprietary solution from scratch. At first glance, developing and deploying a solution in house seems like the logical choice. After all, a custom build allows organizations to design to their own unique workflow needs, security requirements, corporate standards, and to the demands of specific user groups. It is, in the eyes of many companies, a way to control their own mobility destiny. Sounds good, right?

We’re going to bring you back down to reality. Building a solution from scratch is a major undertaking for which most organizations have the ability but not necessarily the resources. Custom development requires a large in-house team that includes engineers, a project manager, QA staff, and a UI lead. For many companies, assembling this team often means pulling employees off projects that are more critical to core business operations. Development teams become quickly overwhelmed as they come to terms with the sheer scope of what it takes to build and deploy an effective enterprise wide mobility solution: creating unique applications for each user group, and testing them to ensure they will work on the more than 10 mobile operating systems and hundreds of different devices currently on the market.

Once companies have deployed their custom solutions, they alone are responsible for maintenance and updates, draining yet more resources from other areas of their business. According to a report from Gartner, device, platform, and application diversity will continue to grow in the smartphone category, and by some estimates the number of mobile application tools and platforms being used by enterprises will jump by 30-percent by 2011. With the top four mobile operating systems each holding a market share of more than ten percent, and device makers introducing on average over 20 new Windows Mobile devices, three BlackBerry models and one iPhone as well as two new operating systems each year, it’s highly unlikely that there will be market convergence around a single operating system or device family in the foreseeable future. And according to an article in SearchMobileComputing.com entitled “Employees using their own mobile devices are a growing challenge,” Forrester found that over 40 percent of employees are using their own smartphones to search the internet or a corporate intranet for work-related tasks, further stretching organizations as they struggle to support their mobile workforces.

“Once consumers have a taste of constant connectivity it is extremely difficult to do without it.” - Ockham Research, Seeking Alpha

Question: How is your company going to deal with the connectivity addiction? Come back for our next chapter where we’ll delve into the numbers behind an enterprise mobility solution.

Chapter 2: Embracing Enterprise Mobility – What your consumers are saying they want

For nine days, Pyxis Mobile's Mobile Productivity Blog will be publishing a series of articles providing the case for enterprise mobility, along with the technical considerations and evaluation criteria for selecting a mobile partner.

"Smartphone apps have become a key platform for businesses and clearly there is more to apps than just games." - Ockham Research, Seeking Alpha

Now that there is a large base of smartphone users, companies are presented with the task of providing value for these devices. After the post-purchase honeymoon phase, smartphone users are demanding mobile applications that are more than just a "cool" game. This need provides the opportunity to disguise marketing and promotional materials as innovative mobile applications and many companies are already capitalizing on the smartphone growth by developing these customer-focused mobile applications.

These application are designed to:

• Build loyalty
• Pinpoint high-value customers
• Drive revenue

"App From Scratch" - Election Spy: Election 2008 Mobile

The next application offered for consideration in last week's App From Scratch competition is "Election Spy" a real-time wireless view into the 2008 US presidential election.

The contest, open to any and all Pyxis Mobile employees, is designed to highlight the power of the Application Studio product, and its ability to deliver an unlimited range of applications and use cases (in under 24 hours) without the need for client or server code development.

Click the link for more images and a full description of this groundbreaking application.

"App From Scratch" - General Contractor Mobile

The next application offered for consideration in last week's App From Scratch competition is "General Contractor Mobile." The contractor application allows a floor manager or a small business owner keep track of inventory and sales information from their mobile device. By interacting with a QuickBooks ™ database, the user can track inventory, order new inventory, provide quotes to clients for jobs, and view reports on current sales figures.

The contest, open to any and all Pyxis Mobile employees, is designed to highlight the power of the Application Studio product, and its ability to deliver an unlimited range of applications and use cases (in under 24 hours) without the need for client or server code development.

Click the link for more images and a full description of this groundbreaking application.

"App From Scratch" - Mobile Casino

The next application offered for consideration in last week's App From Scratch competition is "Mobile Casino" a networked, competitive blackjack and slots tournament (for education and entertainment only).

The contest, open to any and all Pyxis Mobile employees, is designed to highlight the power of the Application Studio product, and its ability to deliver an unlimited range of applications and use cases (in under 24 hours) without the need for client or server code development.

Click the link for more images and a full description of this groundbreaking application.