The mobile Application Developer Community

When it comes to mobile telecommunications in South Africa, we have one of the most dynamic markets in the world. According to the GSMA African Mobile Observatory report published in September 2011, South Africa has approximately 59 million mobile connections.

With improvements in design, advancements in technology and new cost-effective manufacturing processes, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are releasing ever more smartphone variants that are finding their way into the wider mobile population. At the same time, mobile network operators are improving data networks that allow smartphones to do the amazing things that they can do. Perhaps most importantly, the decreasing price of mobile data is contributing to an ever-expanding ecosystem.

In 2008, Steve Jobs and Apple changed mobile with the introduction of the iPhone App Store via an update in iTunes. The Apple App Store ecosystem created one of the world's first “workable” mobile ecosystems. The world's mobile development community has been one of the main beneficiaries of this platform. Apple provided developers with a relatively simple framework for developing mobile applications, removing a developer's biggest challenge: device fragmentation. This created a structure for monetising mobile applications through a relatively simple 70/30 revenue share split, with the majority reaching the developer. Over the past three years, Mobile Application Development has skyrocketed, and we now see the likes of Google, Amazon, Nokia and many others either introducing app stores or racing to improve their current offerings.

The numbers coming out of the various app stores are staggering. For example, as of December 2011, the iOS (Apple's phone, iPod and tablet operating system) app store generated over 18 billion downloads from around 500 000 applications loaded from well over 200 million devices globally. We saw the same with Google's Android, with Andy Rubin (head of Mobile at Google) indicating in December 2011 that there are over now 700 000 Android device activations per day across the globe. It is projected that the Google Market (Google's App Store) will overtake the Apple app store in terms of available applications during the course of 2012. Mobile forecasting and research house Portio Research has indicated that Mobile Application revenue will hit $9.5 billion by the end of 2011. All these figures point towards a very attractive opportunity for developers.

In terms of mobile handsets across numerous types, the following diagram from @visionmobile gives a great indication of the mobile handsets that are in market across the world.

With smartphones becoming widely available in SA (approximately 7 million devices in the market), the mobile application craze has struck, with locally developed applications taking off. Companies like FNB, News24 and DStv are releasing cross-platform applications and services geared towards the South African consumer.

But with the interest and growth, where does that leave the local garage developer? Numerous industry experts say that some of the key challenges facing the developer community in South Africa include:

* Small venture capital/angel investment environment;
* A lack of mobile programming training programmes and courses at tertiary institutions; 
* The difficulty of taking an amazing app idea and actually implementing it;
* The business of application development (monetisation, production and marketing);
* Understanding revenue channels and available billing mechanisms;
* Knowing which programming framework and platform(s) to develop on;
* Lack of locally relevant mobile industry information;
* Application porting and device fragmentation; and
* Lack of devices to actually test applications on (fragmentation).

But there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Numerous developer-orientated initiatives and programmes are launching across the country, creating avenues for garage developers to engage in the industry. Some of the initiatives that I have spotted include, but are not limited to, the following:

* GTUG (Google Technology User Group): A group of developers with chapters in Jo'burg and Cape Town meeting once a month. (www.jhb.gtug.co.za  and www.capetown-gtug.org).

* The mLAB (www.mlab.co.za): A mobile applications laboratory, which incubates innovation and entrepreneurship in mobile apps and content services. The aim is to support the mobile developer and entrepreneur community in southern Africa through a range of services, including training, handset testing, business incubation, mentoring, and holding networking events.

* MOMO Joburg Tech (www.momojoburg.com): A bi-monthly event providing an open forum for developers to engage with each other as well as others in the mobile industry. Numerous guest speakers and industry experts are invited to present and share their knowledge.

* Vodacom Developer Programme (http://www.vodacom.co.za/developer): Vodacom SA has recently launched an application developer programme to stimulate the local garage developer community.

In my engagements with industry experts over the last few months, the following key points were raised that I firmly believe local developers and all parties who are involved in mobile applications need to be aware of:

* South African developers need to stop hiding and make themselves known.
* Players in the South African mobile industry need to make themselves more available and engage more with local developers.
* Developers across the board need to get in now and do it right. Quality over quantity is vital in application development. 
* Mobile applications are 10% development and 90% business and marketing.
* Successful applications like Angry Birds work because of the production, storyline and revenue models applied.
* Know what you are getting yourself into when committing to mobile development.

All parties in SA engage in mobile applications. This applies to the mobile operators, OEMs, WASPs and content providers, advertising agencies, media owners, platform and billing owners, and products and services companies, who all need to work together to grow the business.

Always bear in mind: it is not an EGOsystem, it is an ECOsystem.

If you have an interest in mobile applications and would like to see what's happening in the developer community in SA, MOMO Joburg will be hosting an event with Vodacom Digital Media. For event details, go tohttp://momojoburg.eventbrite.co.za.

* Jonathan Hoehler is chief technical officer and business analyst at Starfish Mobile International. With almost eight years of experience in the mobile telecoms space in Africa, Jonathan explores new business and revenue generating opportunities across the African continent. He is also on the committee of Mobile Monday (MoMo) Joburg. 

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Jury Still Out on Mobile Adware

On Friday, security firm Symantec warned that a baker's dozen of applications available through the Android Marketplace hosted a "bot-like threat" that could leak information.

With an estimated 1 million to 5 million installations, the threat -- dubbed Counterclank by Symantec -- would have been one of the largest outbreaks of mobile malware to date. Yet, other security firms disagreed over the details: The affected programs incorporated third-party software that was not malicious but comprised "an aggressive form of ad network,"concluded mobile security firm Lookout.

The incident highlights that uncertain gray areas continue to inhabit the space between what is definitely a legitimate mobile application and what is purely malicious.

"I think we are in a place where people are being very experimental, and people are coming up with new ideas for a new platform," says Tim Wyatt, a principal engineer at Lookout. "We will definitely see ideas that push the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not."

The debate follows a similar trajectory as the concerns over spyware, adware and unwanted programs that plagued PC users at the beginning of last decade. In the early 2000s, the infamous affiliate adware maker 180Solutions, later known as Zango, paid partners to install its software on systems, which they often did without the users' permission.

In a similar way, some mobile advertising platforms perform functions that users would likely not want, if they had a choice. Counterclank, which is actually the Apperhand software development kit, collects the international mobile equipment identifier (IMEI) and uses the push notification mechanism to send personalized ads to the user's device. Software using the development kit also leaves a search icon on a mobile device's desktop and can modify bookmarks.

The last capability is unacceptable behavior but not malicious, Lookout states in its analysis.

Other companies agree. Counterclank may not be malware, but its definitely unwanted, says Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher with security firm Kaspersky. The company classifies the program, not as malicious, but as something that users would not want on their mobile device. Whether that determination stays constant is an open question, he says.

"It is definitely grayware," Schouwenberg says. "We haven't quite hashed out yet whether (programs using it) are malicious or not. We are currently detecting it, but I would not be surprised if somewhere down the line, we decide not to detect it or detect it in a different way."

On the Android platform, many security firms focus on the types and number of permissions requested by programs as an initial indicator that something may be amiss. However, permissions by themselves are not sufficient, says Schouwenberg.

"We see quite a lot of apps out there that ask for a ton of permissions," he says. "Developers are copy-pasting the permissions list off of a template, and going with it, when in reality, they will never use some of those permissions."

Yet, permissions that seem excessive -- such as GPS tracking, connecting to an Internet server and the ability to read data from the phone -- are actually necessary, argues some developers. Full-function advertising platforms need to assign a user a unique ID and offer other benefits to their clients, argues mobile advertising software maker Mobclix.

"GPS activation, Internet connectivity and read phone state, when accessed, are not signs you’ve accidentally put malware into your application," the company writes in a blog post. "They’re usually legitimately accessed – along with other data and functions we rarely think about."

As mobile application development -- and the business models that drive it -- matures, the gray area will shrink, says Schouwenberg. In addition, customer concerns will likely drive developers to focus on reducing the expansive permission sets that are currently the norm.

"Quick growth and security generally don't go hand in hand," he says. "When the rapid growth starts winding down a bit, that's when Google (and developers) will look and see what they can improve on."

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IBM Buys HTML5 App Development Company WorkLight For $70M To Expand Mobile Enterprise Services

IBM just announced the purchase of WorkLight, an Israeli startup that provides a mobile app development and infrastructure software. IBM says the acquisition will help expand the enterprise mobile capabilities it offers to clients. Financial terms were not disclosed but we’ve heard that the acquisition price is around $70 million, according to Israeli publication Calcalist.

WorkLight, which has raised $18 million in funding, allows organizations develop and deliver HTML5, hybrid and native applications with, and deliver these applications with mobile middleware, security features and integrated data management and analytics. Worklight dramatically reduces time to market, cost and complexity while enabling better customer and employee user experiences across more devices.

Worklight’s customers range in terms of sector and include companies in financial services, retail and healthcare. For example, a bank can create a single application that offers features to enable its customers to securely connect to their account, pay bills and manage their investments, regardless of the device they are using.

IBM says that Worklight will become an “important piece of IBM’s mobility strategy,” offering clients a development platform that helps speed the delivery of existing and new mobile applications to multiple devices and ensures secure connections between smartphone and tablet applications with enterprise IT systems.

IBM’s goal is to provide an end-to-end solution that allows enterprises to build and connect mobile apps, manage security on these apps and devices, provide analytics for mobile data, and more. In addition to Worklight, IBM today is also unveiling IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices, a new software system that will enable corporate users to manage and secure their mobile devices these applications are running on.

The acquisition of Worklight is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012. Worklight will sit within IBM’s Software Group.

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Design Mobile App Campaigns with Tech Geeks in Mind

Companies adding a mobile application component to their digital marketing efforts would do best to work on winning over the tech geeks who are most likely to download an app and tell others about it, recent research indicates.

A report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) divided the types of mobile app consumers into tech evangelists, impulse buyers, experimental adopters, pragmatic purchasers, green buyers and disengaged functionalists.

Michael DeHart, director of IDC's Global ConsumerScape 360 deg program, noted that tech evangelists drive "adoption of device ownership and usage by other market segments."

He added that targeting the tech evangelists would create the highest marketing ROI "in terms of segment-based app development and marketing," so ad agencies should make sure their plans center around getting this segment to use the feature and encourage friends and family to do the same. This group will likely spend about 10 percent more on technology and apps this year than they did in 2011, IDC predicts.

The company also measured the current state of the app market. Out of all the options available, 85 percent of apps are free, with the most popular being those for gaming, music, weather, news, navigation, entertainment and social networking. According to researchers, those in South Korea are the most active downloaders of free and paid apps, while Swedish and American consumers are also frequent users.

As Ramon Ray and the Smallbiztechnology.com team recently wrote in an article for Business Insider, it's important for businesses to develop mobile apps in order to engage customers - if they can afford it.

"If you dont have money to build ... an app, then don't build it for the sake that your competitors or peers are doing it," they write. "However, if you think mobile advertising will work for you, go ahead with that."
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Mobile Application Development

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Boréalis launches new mobile applications

MAGOG, QC, Jan. 24, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Aiming to continually meet the needs of international clients in the mining, oil & gas industries who are working in difficult conditions in the field, Borealis (Boreal - Information Strategies), now offers new mobile applications (Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPad).

These mobile applications are compatible with the Borealis IMS, the social responsibility and environmental performance software that makes it possible for employees to work off-line and paperless wherever they operate around the globe.

"When working in the desert or in the jungle in extreme conditions, network access is frequently difficult. Our partners have experienced this problem with connectivity on a repeated basis. We developed these new applications in collaboration with them to further facilitate their work" said the Chief Technology Officer, Philippe Hammond.

"Companies in the mining, oil & gas fields have been taking advantage of our social responsibility and environmental performance software Borealis IMS for more than five years. Thanks to our new applications, they will continue to do so with greater autonomy" explained the president, Jules Paquette.

Based on Web technologies, the Borealis IMS is the only software that provides a proven solution that can meet the social and environmental challenges facing the extractive industry.

Benefits of new the applications
In addition to providing timely access to existing information on a given project, Borealis IMS mobile applications and the new Borealis iPAD application both allow access to remote field data. There are many advantages for businesses: increased productivity of field crews, integrated photography and GPS locations, direct uploading of digital reports, remote access to system software and Borealis IMS data synchronization when network becomes available.

In addition to the offered flexibility, Borealis has ensured that its new applications can be used in compliance with company policies relating to corporate security. Mindful of the need to be particularly careful when working with sensitive information online, Borealis has equipped its new applications with a host of safeguards to ensure data security such as password policies, encryption, secure connections, as well as a new function to automatically delete data collected on mobile devices if lost or stolen.

"Borealis is recognized internationally for its pioneering products and services in social responsibility management and environmental performance. Because of in depth experience acquired on-site, we continue to innovate and improve our offer for the benefit of our customers, "says Jules Paquette.

About Borealis
Founded in 2004 in Magog, Quebec, Borealis offers comprehensive solutions aimed at streamlining its clients' business processes and ensuring that they are equipped to fulfil their sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments. Borealis is internationally recognized for its exemplary solutions in the social and environmental impact management of major projects, particularly in the mining, oil and gas industries.

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Mobile Application development

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Mobile App Developers Beginning to Favor Android Over iOS

Mobile app developers remain the lifeblood of the mobile application industry. And their preferences go a long way to determine smartphone operating system supremacy in the contemporary mobile market.

That said, it could come as a significant blow to Apple that a growing number of mobile application developers are favoring the Android platform over iOS.

Based on the findings of Ovum’s second annual developer survey, the independent technology analyst reveals that Android looks set to replace Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers within the next 12 months.

However, the report adds, “despite a clear vie for ultimate supremacy between these two platforms, almost all developers support both.”

The research also shows a move away from traditional cross-platform mobile application development approaches (e.g. Java, Flash, WAP). Instead, developers are focusing their efforts on web-based standards (e.g. HTML5), which seem to be the preferred approach to building cross-platform applications.

“A smartphone platform’s success is dictated not only by the pull of consumers and the push of handset vendors and mobile operators but also by a healthy economy of applications delivered by third-party developers. Therefore, it is important for all players in the smartphone ecosystem to understand the choices developers are making today and the downstream impact of those choices,” say Adam Leach, devices & platforms practice leader at Ovum and author of the research.

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Lenovo, NAF launch mobile app development programme in US

Lenovo and US-based National Academy Foundation (NAF) have launched a programme to teach mobile application development to high school students across the United States. Five schools from NAF's network of career academies are piloting the programme as part of Lenovo's initiative to encourage student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. To aid the students and teachers implement the curriculum, Lenovo provided a package of technology products to each school, including Android-based ThinkPad Tablets and large format ThinkCentre HD All-in-One desktops, among other items. The other schools that will offer the application development course are part of the National Academy Foundation's Academies of Information Technology: Grover Cleveland High School in New York City; Downtown Magnets H igh School in Los Angeles, California; Pathways to Technology Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, and AJ Moore Academy of Information and Technology in Waco, Texas. 

The programme aims to make the curriculum available to NAF's 100 Academies of Information Technology. The course is designed to be implemented as either a twelve-week after-school or 'out-of-school time' activity to supplement the NAF-developed IT courses students take during the school day or as part of the existing NAF daytime curriculum. Student teams will develop a working wireframe, business plan and implementation schedule for an Android-based mobile application.

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Website Design and Mobile Applications Development in Texas

Houston, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/23/2012 -- Looking for expert website design services in Texas? You’re not alone as there is a great demand for quality web development expertise in Texas as well as other States. Most of the companies offering this expertise are falling to dogs just because they are not well equipped with the sufficient and quality variety of experts. As we talk about the web design services in Houston, some nearby areas like Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth etc are also gaining popular for professional website design in Texas.

Web Development in Houston, Texas

Website For Business is constantly providing web development in Houston and the nearby areas such as San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso. Our Customers is the proven evidence of our excellent expertise where recommendations are abundant in statistics to stand with us.

- We have experts that evaluate your website and gather images and design to suit your business. The color blends developed give an appealing perspective to your web pages when incorporated with the templates. While working with the design of the internet sites, our expert designers develop attractive flash design and animations.

- We provide domain hosting and registration up for our clients at absolutely no cost for a period of one year.

- Whenever, you need to make your website up to date, Website For Business is right here to help you maintain the same perspective by changing your website throughout.

- We provide web style expertise Arizona seeking at providing you the final product designed from the scratch. We do not content others’ ideas till we are trusted to go for the same.

- We have expert copy writers functioning regular with the organization and they strive throughout to deliver the genuine web content development for your internet sites remember the whole nature and the opportunity of economic being performed by you.

- The website, when finished, is your property and we are liable to handover the content of the whole work to the clients so that a proper record is kept with the client as well.

Our Motto is 100% Client Satisfaction

We have a comprehensive customer support that offers our clients to get in touch with us at any moment for the queries regarding website designing, web applications development, search engine optimization seo, ecommerce solutions and other service areas like mobile application development such as iPhone app development, iPad application development, Android application development etc in Texas.

Contact Website For Business now to hear how our Texas web design services can help your business have a more compelling, user-friendly website.

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Cloud Platform Stress Tests Mobile Apps

SOASTA has updated its CloudTest Platform to do automated mobile application testing. Developers can put touch- and gesture-based interactions on iOS and Android devices through their paces.

Performance testing company SOASTA is extending its cloud testing platform to mobile devices.

On Monday, the Mountain View. Calif.-based company plans to update its CloudTest Platform to enable automated mobile application testing and analysis.

As Tom Lounibos, CEO of the six-year-old company, noted in a phone interview, the way we interact with applications has evolved beyond keyboard input to touch- and gesture-based interaction. With the addition of TouchTest, technology that records and plays back touch-based interaction on iOS and Android devices, SOASTA's software enables developers and publishers to perform automated assessments of mobile app performance.

Mobile devices, he said, have introduced "new forms of interaction and movement that have been impossible to test with traditional tools."

[ Cloud computing is finding a home with financial services companies. Read Cloud Pushes Further Into Financial Services. ]

Testing is important for those creating mobile apps because tests can help identify problems, whether those problems have to do with usability or technical flaws. If you're launching a mobile app to support your brand, you want to make sure that it is capable of performing as designed, with a few or with many users.

Lounibos said that the idea for SOASTA's CloudTest Platform arose in 2002 when he was involved in a prior start-up, Dorado, a loan origination system for the Web. As Dorado was preparing to deploy its service for Chase, Lounibos was asked how the online loan system would perform if 100,000 customers tried it at once.

"I had to say, 'I don't know,'" he said. And there wasn't an easy way to find out at the time. To simulate 100,000 users at the time would have taken about 1,000 servers, he said, and no one had that many immediately available for hire. Sun's lab back then, he said, only had about 400. Out of that customer question came the realization that there was a market for a way to test cloud computing applications.

Other companies have been providing similar software testing and management services for enterprises, notably Mercury and Rational Software. And the acquisition of these companies for significant sums in years past, by HP and IBM respectively, underscores the value of such services to businesses.

TouchTest technology, available through SOASTA CloudTest and CloudTest Lite, tracks touch-based gestures from beginning to end. Lounibos says this is more reliable than optical tracking or checking touches by monitoring variables in app code.

SOASTA is also offering mobile app functional testing packages for teams, CloudTest iOS Lab and CloudTest Android Lab, as well as a service called Private Device Cloud for testing employees devices on a private network.

TouchTest will be offered as a feature enhancement for use by mobile developers and testers that are using CloudTest and CloudTest Lite, with the first testing device free of charge. SOASTA is also offering two new, affordable starter kits, CloudTest iOS Lab and CloudTest Android Lab, designed for mobile app functional testing teams. 

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2012 Is Android's Year For Developers, Says Ovum

After conducting their second annual developers' survey, London-based IT consultancy firm Ovum found Android is fast set to eclipse iOS "in terms of importance to developers," according to a recent press release.

iOS and Android are currently the top two platforms for mobile developers, with "growing interest" in Windows Phone and, amazingly, BlackBerry OS (despite the company's recent turmoil).

The survey, entitled "Developer Insights 2011: Trends in Mobile Application Development," was conducted to determine how recent changes in the mobile device market have also changed which platforms and technologies developers choose when building mobile apps.

Some of the insights revealed in the survey square with common-sense views of the smartphone market. Interest continues to build in Windows Phone 7, although it still lags far behind iOS and Android in terms of overall market share. Adam Leach, devices and platforms practice leader at Ovum, and author of the above research report, puts it this way: "The growing momentum behind Windows Phone indicates that Microsoft has managed to convince developers that its platform is worthy of investment; its challenge now is to persuade consumers."

The report also shows an increasing interest in web-based standards such as HTML5 as the way forward for building cross-platform mobile applications. The more traditional cross-platform approaches--e.g, Java and Flash--are on the wane. But vendor-specific distribution channels, such as Android Market, remain the most viable way to reach and build an audience for those applications.

While the survey focused on smartphones, developers who build for phones -- Android and iOS in particular -- are finding a growing market for their applications on tablets as well. With the growth of inexpensive (if slightly dodgy) Android tablets, like the $199 Kindle Fire and the forthcoming $200 Google Nexus tablet -- and a horde of even lower-priced tablets on the horizon after that -- a parallel market is opening up. Android apps originally written for smartphones sometimes need tweaking to run well on tablets, but it's inevitable that applications written for each venue may cross over into the other.

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