The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
Considerations for Mobile App Development
The
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#10 - Which platform to target?
Growing
Android
iOS (iPhone, iPad)
Windows Phone 7
Shrinking
Blackberry
Symbian
Windows Mobile 6
45%
18%
12%
1% 23%
Mobile OS Market Share (August 2011)
Apple
RIM
Microsoft
Symbian
Source: Market Statistics – Gartner August 2011
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#9 - Don’t forget the tablet!
Tablet market share is growing
Present Day iOS (iPad) is the current
dominant force Making headway into
education
Future Android will be picking up in
this holiday season Microsoft is set to change the
game with Windows 8 in 2012
Global Tablet OS Shipments (Millions of Units) Q2 '10 Q2 '11
Apple iOS 3.3 9.3
Android 0.1 4.6
Microsoft 0.0 0.7
QNX 0.0 0.5
Others 0.1 0.1
Total 3.5 15.1
Global Tablet OS Marketshare % Q2 '10 Q2 '11
Apple iOS 94.3% 61.3%
Android 2.9% 30.1%
Microsoft 0.0% 4.6%
QNX 0.0% 3.3%
Others 2.9% 0.7%
Total 100.00% 100.0%
Growth Year-over-Year % N / A 331%
Source: Global Tablet OS Market Share: Q2 2011, Strategy Analytics
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#9 Cont. - Targeting the phone and tablet
Two ways to target tablet apps Separate apps
“Universal” apps
Even with “universal” apps, designs and functionality often differ
Case in point: Twitter’s “universal” app
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#8 - User Experience
To each its own
Up to the developer
Benefits of guidelines
User feels at home
Ease of development
Consistent experience
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#8 Cont. - Branding
Just because there are UX guidelines doesn’t mean you cannot brand
Branding can identify your app as the real McCoy
Include your… Logo Colors Language
Be creative with your branding Remember this is interactive,
so do more than advertise
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#7 - Native vs. Hybrid Development
Native Pros:
Greater control over user experience
Able to create games
Able to take full advantage of the device’s API
Cons: Deep platform
Knowledge needed
Limited portability
Hybrid Pros:
Unifies Web and Mobile Development
Leverages HTML5
Lower platform knowledge needed
Code portability
Cons: Limited API
availability
Less control over user experience
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#6 What is HTML5?
Intended to replace HTML4, XHTML1, and DOC2HTML
HTML5 ~= HTML + CSS + JS
What's New?
New semantically correct elements
New JavaScript APIs
New input types
Built-in error handling
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#6 - HTML5 and the Mobile Web
HTML5 provides: Geolocation
Background threads
Bi-directional communication over sockets
Access to the file system
Persistent data storage
Speech input
Context-sensitive keyboard Inputs
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
#6 Cont. – HTML 5 Inputs
type=“email” type=“tel”
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 5 - It’s all about the data & integration Some services are
easier to consume than others from a mobile app SOAP is more involved
and requires 3rd party libraries
REST is URL-based and can serve either XML or JSON data
Data formats XML isn’t as optimal for
data exchange on mobile devices It’s a verbose format that
increases the size of the data to/from the device
JSON is more compact and can be easily consumed on all mobile platforms
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 4 - Making your Apps responsive!
Data Size Reduced Round Trips Local Storage vs. Browser
Caching Browser Rendering
This all adds up to one thing: SPEED!
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 3 - How can the cloud help?
Easy way to get going quickly
Fault Tolerant Dynamic Scaling Conduct Business
Everywhere Deliver Value Faster Minimize Innovation
Risk Quicker Return on
Investment
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 2 -How do you distribute a mobile app?
App Stores/Recommendation Sites
Optimize Search Discovery and the Channels You Own
Specialist Press
Ad Networks
App Giveaways
Focused App Stores - Openfeint (For Games)
TV Ads
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 2 Cont. – App Store Distributions
iOS (Apple) iTunes App Store
Cost: $99/year
Windows Phone (Microsoft) Windows Phone
Marketplace
Cost: $99/100 app submissions
Android (Google) Android Marketplace
Cost: $25 one time
Amazon.com Appstore
Cost: $99/year
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
# 1 - Monetization
Application sales Commerce provided by public
application stores
Tens of millions of potential users instantly available
The publishers take a cut of every App sale
Advertising Place ads in your apps and
receive income from ad clicks iAd
AdMob
In-app purchases Users can purchase additional
content for your app, as well as subscription fees.
Publishers take cut
* This area continues to change
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
How can RDA help you get started?
Engage us to help: Application Planning
Lunch n’ Learn Educational Discussions
Application Assessments
Development Services
Just want to talk with someone on how to get started?
Call: 1-888-441-1278 ext. 1313
Email: [email protected]
Online: www.rdacorp.com and submit a Contact Us form
The Considerations for Mobile
App Development
© 2011 RDA Corporation. All rights reserved. www.rdacorp.com
Additional Resources
Free Whitepaper - Choosing the Right Mobile Development Method http://www.rdacorp.com/thought_leadership/whitepapers/Choosing-the-Right-Mobile-
Development-Method.html
RDA’s Mobile Application Developer Blog http://mobile.rdacorp.com
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