;)
The future of mobile apps
Posted by Dennis Burford in Cross Platform
After reading the news coming out of the Mobile World Congress, I’ve had a peek into my crystal ball (is there an iPhone crystal ball app yet? There has to be!) and I’ve seen the future. Perhaps it’s bleeding obvious to everyone, but I’ll tell you what I think anyway. The future belongs to…
…Adobe AIR, Widgets, and JavaFX Mobile.
All offer flexible and customizable user interfaces, easy access to online services and also device functionality, cross platform support, and an existing developer base. They have to be the future, right?
A little more detail:
Adobe AIR: All the benefits of
Flash, but outside the browser and across platforms. Also allows access to phone functionality, such as local storage.
http://blogs.adobe.com/air/2010/02/preview_of_air_on_android.html
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/air-android/
Widgets:
Been around for a long while, e.g. Nokia’s Web Runtime (WRT). Idea is to use existing web technology and standards (HTML, CSS, Javascript) to create a mobile app with access to device functionality. BONDI from OMTP looks to be the front runner here. Even WinMobile 7 has embraced the broader widget concept with its tile based interface.
http://bondi.omtp.org/default.aspx
http://bondisdk.limofoundation.org/
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Technology_Topics/Web_Technologies/Web_Runtime/
http://www.windowsphone7series.com/
JavaFX Mobile: Java’s answer to Flash. Like Flash, it has great flexibility with the GUI. It also allows easy integration with existing Java code — no need to migrate to another language. Along with the improvements contained in MIDP3, Java mobile development looks really promising. Only downside is that not many device manufacturers have committed to supporting it, which could be its death knell. 
http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/mobile/
Those are my predictions. Feel free to tell me I’m talking crap!
I’m not so sure about these technologies in the future of mobile apps. I think native apps provide the same look and feel of the device you are using which provides a better user experience for the user. Whereas widgets and flash allow you to do anything you want and makes apps feel almost like a seperate experience from the device you are using.
I also think the adoption of these technologies would also relate to how easy it is for the consumers to get applications made with these technologies on their phones. If it’s available on the app store for the device, then it might work, but if not, I don’t think there’s any point.