Table of content
The mobile application development
Advantages and Disadvantages of mobile system applications
Factors affecting Mobile System Applications
Mobile applications, also called apps, are internet applications that run on smartphones and other mobile devices. In most cases, the mobile applications usually helps the users by connecting them to internet services either accessed on notebook computers or desktops or helping individuals who will be able to access the internet on their portable devices. Some examples of mobile apps include mobile website bookmarking utility, messaging applications, Gmail, among others. Therefore, this report reviews the mobile application development, management, some disadvantages and advantages of the mobile system applications
The mobile application development
Mobile application development refers to the process of developing application software for the devices which are handheld, especially mobile phones, personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants among others. The applications can be pre-installed on the phones during manufacturing, or can be made later and be delivered as web applications using server-side/client side processing.
Mobile app development industry is growing steadily and is creating more jobs and market at the same time. Study suggests that over 600000 jobs have been created through mobile app development (Chen & Kotz, 2000, n.p). On the other hand, the industry faces a stiff competition and the developers have to be much creative and be considerate when making the applications; they should consider some of the hardware specifications and configurations in which their applications will be used.
The developers also consider the mobile user interface in their creation. This factor considers constraints and contexts, screen, input and mobility as outlines for the design. Since the user is the focus of in interaction with their devices, the interface is made in such a way that it contains all the needed components of both hardware and software.
The mobile user interface design constraints include limited attention and form factors, which include mobile device’s screen size for the user’s hand. In general, mobile user interface design’s goal is primarily to help user understand the system and make it user-friendly. With a this regard, mobile applications should consider such factors as; user’s limited attention, minimize keystrokes, and be made in a way that it has minimum set of functions
Mobile applications are first tested within the development environment using emulators and later subjected to field testing (Satoh, 2000, n.p). The emulators are efficient since they provide an inexpensive way to test applications on mobile phones to which developer may have physical access. Some of the tools use to test applications include; Google Android Emulator, Mobione, Testipnone, iphoney, the official android sdk emulator, among others.
Mobile application management (MAM) is a term used to refer to services and software used to secure, manage and also distribute mobile applications used in enterprise settings on mobile devices like the smartphones. The mobile application management applies to company-owned mobile devices. MAM also offer services like licensing the software, application configuration, usage track and also the application lifecycle management. MAM’s sole focus is on securing sensitive enterprise apps and their data.
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google currently, and based on Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices like the smartphones and tablets. Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems, and second most commonly used mobile operating system after the iOS. Android was first developed in the year 2005 but was unveiled in 2007 by Google. The Google play store has over one billion applications published and over fifty billion applications downloaded (Fontana, 2004, n.p). Android’s user interface is based on the direct manipulation using touch gesture.
Advantages and Disadvantages of mobile system applications
It is no doubt that the world is going mobile. The integration between the personal smartphones, tablets and office systems can be a competitive advantage for SMBs. Businesses who understands how to connect to remote workers and take the advantage of mobile applications will surely succeed.
The smartphones acts like personal computers where you can even access your company’s directory, activate and change the call rules, make and receive calls from your office extension remotely among other uses. Android phones are good at multitasking. You can run many applications at the same time
The phones are best at notifying individual so quickly; anything latest or even a text message will be shown immediately. Through the Google play store, one can access thousands of applications. You only need to download the application and install it. The android phone contains the widgets which are so easy to access
Some of the disadvantages of using the mobile applications include; the continuous use of internet, which is so expensive. Another disadvantage is that no matter how easy it may seem to download an app from the Google app store, every coming application has got ads coming on the screen which may sometimes be annoying.
Factors affecting Mobile System Applications
Mobile apps are powerful drivers of traffic, increasing advertising, sales and growth. Study shows that people spend over there hours per day on mobile devices and purchases from devices are up to 18 percent. This facts show that this trend won’t slow down and mobile applications will be more efficient in making businesses grows. However, app development is not inexpensive.
This fact sends away many willing people. Authentication of the application is an important consideration. While the development costs for non secure applications are lower, most enterprise applications require user logins with secure access and a secure integration channel into the firm. This requires cooperation between the app development team and the enterprise system development team to ensure seamless integration.
Other factor suggests that an app can either be stand-alone or integrated within an enterprise system. If your app won’t need enterprise data, enterprise system or corporate access, or central business logic, the cost will be significantly lower and restricted to app development only. There are many distribution channels that will deploy the application you are interested to sell all those channels charges some amount of money which may be costly to some extent (Godara, 1997, n.p).
Another option will include a corporate app store, which is administered through an enterprise mobility management. The apps are thus deployed to the corporate storefront for installation to authorized users and devices thus a disadvantage. Another factor will be being unable to maintain, support or enhance your application,
Mobile system applications have affected every individual both in negative and positive way. We cannot imagine a world now without mobile phone, especially smart phones. The phones are turning the world mobile considering the development of applications which are making communications and even work easy.
Businesses who understand how to connect to remote workers and take the advantage of mobile applications will surely succeed, individuals are able to access their company’s directory and also make and receive calls from your office extension remotely. Despite having some few disadvantages, the mobile applications are of much help to human, and much more advancements are expected on the industry which will make work even easier for human.
References
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Chen, G., & Kotz, D. (2000). A survey of context-aware mobile computing research (Vol. 1, No. 2.1, pp. 2-1). Technical Report TR2000-381, Dept. of Computer Science, Dartmouth College.
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