Campfire #2 : The State of Mobile Development [Webinar 62min]

On December 13, Mertech continued the Campfire initiative with a session on mobile development. Mertech representatives Oliver Nelson (Senior Developer) and Riaz Merchant (President) kicked off the session with a slide presentation. If you missed it, the session is available above.

The presentation mainly focused on the pros and cons of developing for native platforms versus using cross-platform development tools. Many such tools exist, but the main ones that were highlighted are Titanium, a platform which allows the user to develop in native but using JavaScript code; PhoneGap, which enables the development of a web-based app in a native wrapper; and Corona Labs, which is focused on games and heavy animation. Most cross-platform tools are HTML5-based, which allows the developer to “write once run everywhere”, saving time and expense, but limits the functionality, performance and look & feel of the app.

However, many of these advantages will eventually disappear as new technology is developed, such as that being developed by http://famo.us. One question asked related to Zuckerberg’s recent proclamation that going with HTML5 was the biggest mistake that Facebook ever made – with major companies feeling this way, how is there a future for HTML5? The presentation also covered the development specifications for each platform.

Next, Nathan Rasche and Jon Hulsman, who are spearheading Jasper Engines’ mobile initiatives, spoke about their mobile journey to create a CRM application for their sales representatives. This mobile app allows sales representatives to create action plans with access to all customer data, including sales and warranty history, and also to create sales presentations, which replaces the array of devices and DVD’s that they were previously using in their on-site sales calls. Their biggest challenge was data synchronization due to the constantly changing data and the lack of 3G in many sales regions. They settled on building their own data synchronization platform.

Other discussion points were brought up such as how Microsoft’s Win 8 Pro will affect the market once it launches next year, and how one can develop for mobile using X86 code. In conclusion, the enterprise market seems to be more fragmented than the consumer market in their choice of platforms, which leaves room for minority players to gain market share. It will be interesting to see how the markets develop in these platform wars.

We look forward to the Mertech community’s participation in future Campfires!