Endeavour Software Technologies

NFC, the buzzword everywhere, but what is the hype all about!!

2011-12-12T13:46:00.001+05:30

NFC, short for Near Field Communication is a short-range wireless RFID technology that makes use of interacting electromagnetic radio fields instead of typical direct radio transmissions used by technologies such as Bluetooth. It is being predicted that gradually this technology will transform our mobile phones into a wallet loaded with payment cards from multiple sources including credit cards, health cards, loyalty cards and many more. As compared to its prior technologies such as RFID and Bluetooth, NFC is considered to be more intuitive, versatile and security ready, both with respect to technology as well as standards.

The NFC Ecosystem – Key Stakeholders

The kind of stakeholders involved in successful adoption of NFC are disparate & have to ideally come together to make this dream a reality. The diagram represents key stakeholders for successful implementation of NFC:

Some of the key challenges worth mentioning here include: consumer adoption, merchant adoption, standardization, and interoperability and last but not the least, the evolving business models such that the players/stakeholders are working with and not against one another.

The year 2011 was indeed pivotal for advancements in NFC. We saw the launch of Google wallet, the commitment of handset manufacturers and credit card companies behind ISIS and the cooperation of NFC reader manufacturers like VeriFone, which started building NFC into all of its new payment terminals. Payment gateway players such as Visa are also getting involved & taking the lead to explore NFC. Though currently there are only two cards that are NFC enabled, Citibank Master Card and a prepaid card issued by Google, but others are expected to follow soon.

NFC beyond Mobile Payments

NFC is way beyond mobile Payments. The general association of NFC with mobile payments is perhaps due to the fact that solutions from large players such as Google, Verizon came with solutions primarily focused around financial payments. This is however now true. NFC is way beyond Mobile Payments and has business opportunities across verticals, industries & domains. Some of the popular use cases could be:

- In healthcare wherein the users have a health card which enables storing information about the patient’s health, billing & payment of insurance premium and many more use cases;

- In retail with smart shopping card;

- Features such as exchanging personal information, virtual fingerprinting strengthening security

- Mobile marketing; and many more

Challenges for NFC in 2012

The key challenges which we foresee for NFC in the year 2012 are:

1. Lack of clarity to consumer

The consumers are still lost and confused about the complete concept. For NFC to be successful a comfort level needs to be created for the consumers and they have to be convinced about security of contact less payments via NFC. Also there are variety of devices enabled with NFC technology with no standards to set interoperability across devices & merchant kiosks. This will pose as the biggest challenge and the ecosystem will have to derive standards to see NFC in the year of 2012. The biggest concern currently is “All Wallets may not work on all Devices, all Networks & all Merchants”!!

2. Market Battles

The market battle is ON! Mobile Platform’s are competing to leverage the first mover advantage, while service providers & merchants are competing to jump a leap ahead of their competitors.

3. Merchant’s Dilemma

Merchant’s dilemma is “Which Wallet to Support”! Also they will need to make a huge investment in terms of upgrading their POS systems & kiosks to enable leveraging full capability of NFC technology.

4. Profit Issue

Who is making the money, is the billion dollar question? Every stakeholder is trying to leverage as much as possible and be on the winning end. The point all the stakeholder’s are missing is, we all need to work with and not against one another to make this a win-win situation for all of us.

Future of NFC

We predict the future of NFC in years to come is extremely promising. This will however depend on how the relationship between stakeholders of NFC ecosystem evolves but all said and done, the key players involved will use all possible carrot-and-stick approaches to convince merchants to adopt NFC.

Irrespective of the challenges NFC will face, the industry will evolve with new standards to embed NFC chips into SD or Micro SD cards. We expect new type of NFC tags to store more data, NFC enabled SIM cards and SIM based NFC payment solution.

Endeavour recently hosted a Webinar on “Insider’s Insight into NFC” which provided much more details about NFC, its future & trends. The recording of the same is available here:

Also Read our previous post

NFC based applications making everyday life easier

Mobile weds Cloud - The perfect marriage?

2011-11-15T08:11:00.000+05:30

Everyone in technology world is talking about Cloud & it’s perfect marriage with Mobile. Cloud computing has grown from a pie-in-the-sky vision to a major IT movement and is surely having an enormous impact across industries, changing the way we access and store data. But it holds special promise for smart phones & tablets, which serve as the gateway to our most important content.

The wants of Consumers, Enterprises, and Application Enablers!!

Today consumers & enterprises are looking for information to be available anytime, anywhere and without any restrictions on the devices being used. In such a scenario it was not the “Need being the mother of invention” but “Need being the motivation behind the marriage between Mobile & Cloud”.

From consumer’s perspective, they would like the ability to store and access unlimited media irrespective of the device limitations. Enterprises want to enable wide range of IT functions to enhance employee productivity and to keep them connected across regions thereby enabling seamless sharing of information, delivering services & effective collaboration. With regards to service providers & application enablers, they would want to build apps which are platform agnostic and which can be supported on multiple devices.

Lot of enterprises are moving on to hosted solutions over “The Cloud” and are deriving significant cost advantages. A typical example of such offering is “Enterprise mobile cloud device management tool”. The solutions assists the IT teams at large enterprises in remotely managing the mobile devices by setting policies, performing security verifications, creating enterprise level sandboxes as well in securing virtual areas within the device to segregate personal and enterprise data.

This reflects “Mobility + Cloud” is changing the way mobile applications are developed, acquired and used within the enterprise, or utilized by the consumers for accessing enterprise & personal information. Research from Gartner & IDC further support this fact wherein Gartner estimated “Cloud Software as a Service” to be a $9.2 billion market in 2010, set to reach $10.7 billion in 2011. Another analyst firm, IDC, predicted a $72.9 billion cloud services market by 2015, with SaaS offerings composing roughly 75 percent of that amount.

Are the Current Trends Interesting?

Cloud services utilized by enterprises make mobile devices such as Smartphone & tablets more productive with reduced cost, enabling enterprise employees to access data centre resources that previously were only accessible via desktops, laptops and notebooks. Mobile devices with their ubiquitous, non-stop wireless access make cloud-delivered applications, data, and services more relevant and more instantly available anywhere.

App stores have seen a terrific surge in sheer number of the applications available for. Thereby some of the recent app stores such as HiSpace have moved on to the Cloud which makes it easier to seamlessly maintain, access and synchronize the applications across the range of devices owned by the typical user or household: TVs, PCs, phones, tablets, gaming devices, etc. The developer community is also challenged with developing and constantly updating for multiple OSs, and numerous flavours of phones and tablets. The Cloud enables some consolidation of this work stream.

“Leapdrive” is a typical example of the way Cloud Providers are enabling content from the Cloud across various channels. The appication allows the users to remotely access, view, manage and share all their digital content as soon as it is uploaded to user’s cloud storage. All the multimedia – music, photos and videos – are available to the user while they are on the go. The solution supports streaming music and videos, access to photographs, files directly from the cloud space to the mobile device turning your mobile into a bottomless phone with access to “gigabytes” of space!!

Are we missing the iCloud?

Looking at the future, cloud will work its way even deeper into the consumer sphere beginning next year. The launch of iClould by Apple with iOS5 or better known as the iOS 4S , is essentially an admittance to the fact that iTunes/local storage/sync model is not acceptable in todays multiple device/content everywhere/web services world. After Apple’s iCloud, few other manufacturers are also warming up to the cloud storage and services. HTC was the first to kick of the cloud debate and Huawei is taking it a step further. Huawei provides cloud solution with a free storage of 10 GB in its new devices such as Huawei Vision & Mediapad.

Though application developers & service providers are considering the cloud as a much more compelling place to host one's applications with each passing day, Enterprises are evaluating Cloud with regards to few key challenges such as security & lock-in.

A number of open-source projects and products are now attempting to resolve the lock-in problem, but there's still a long way to go. Security, too, is the focus of much talk and a fair amount of activity from industry organizations, but it looks as if it might take a damaging breach to kick-start an industry-wide approach to resolving some core issues.

What lies in the future?

Consumerization of Cloud Services isn’t something that’s coming. It’s something that’s here.

As the mobility experts we foresee that very soon the browser will become “An Appstore” in itself and most of the consumer as well as enterprise applications will directly operate through the cloud. The advancements in network speeds and low cost Cloud Storage options will drive the integration of cloud and mobile applications thereby evolving cloud computing as the key. We’ll have people accessing social media and corporate apps from smart phones and tablets.

The Mobile Cloud will pave the way for the “Internet of Things.”!!

Our “10 Cents” on the prediction for the future of cloud & mobile’s marriage, is that they are going to live through this time of evolution and make it a “perfect” story.

Endeavour is a specialist Mobility Company, providing strategic consulting and product development for Mobile enabling businesses in the Manufacturing, Media, Print, Healthcare, Consumer solutions, Telecom and Business Intelligence verticals. Endeavour has a strong mobile application development team on all mobile platforms in the market today, including, RIM, Apple, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, micro Linux, Brew. Endeavour is based out of Austin, Texas, Bangalore India and London, UK.

Mobilizing the enterprise is imperative for businesses

2011-09-14T13:46:00.000+05:30

It can’t be denied: Enterprise mobility is truly taking off. Powerful smartphones are becoming omnipresent, as innovations are happening in the tablets space thereby strengthening the foundation for mobile business applications and enterprise mobility. Mobile enterprise is a fertile field for business innovation, competitive growth and profitability. Organizations are considering mobile initiatives to leverage benefits such as:

- Quicker on investment

- Increased employee productivity

- Desire to interact directly with the customer

- More reliance on mobile information workers and tele-workers

2011 presents enterprises with humongous opportunities to address emerging trends in the enterprise mobility and telecommunications market. Key corporate mobility initiatives include supporting more smartphones, tablets, and other connected mobile devices for employees, deploying more mobile applications, and establishing mobility policies.

SAP has rolled out more than 2,500 iPad tablets to their employees, as they believe that iPad is a useful fantastic tool, not a toy. Wireless apps aren’t just about slings hotting birds or drinking virtual beers anymore. Mainstream business tasks from sales and marketing to customer service and consumer research are quickly making their way from desktops to smartphones.

In addition to mobility initiatives, there are emerging technology opportunities for service providers including unified communications (UC), video services, and machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions. Along with growing investment in these priorities, enterprises are increasingly requiring service delivery via as-a-service, cloud-based, and pay-as-you-go pricing and engagement models.

Enterprise going ahead with Mobility curve

People don’t treat Smartphone's the same way they do laptops, but these devices have become every bit as powerful. As an end user they would prefer having enterprise featured phone so that they can do online credit card payment and take advantages of mobile banking. Book movie, hotel & travel tickets while they are waiting at the metro station for the next train to arrive. Monitor their health & send the reports generated by the self health assessment mobile applications for diseases such as diabetes, asthma, and chronic illnesses to their doctors.

This is the consumer facing aspect of Enterprise Mobility, while the scope of Mobility within the Enterprise is humongous. Forrester recently released data showing 78% of information workers either use or want to use smartphones for work. So from a business perspective call of today’s time is the need for making the sales force truly mobile. Endeavour has built an iPad sales force application suite for a fortune 100 organization in the space of surgical equipment development. Through the app a sales person will be able to access any information when making a sale and a customer visit in an online as well as offline mode. App provides critical information such as Marketing Content, Clinical content, Product Specs, Tools & Apps. This solutions help businesses automate tasks such as inventory control, sales processing, and tracking of customer interactions thereby enabling organizations manage customer relationships better.

Understanding the impact of mobile technology on enterprises is compelling several forward-looking companies to internally start deploying mobility technology solutions into their systems across verticals such as Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Education Insurance, Banking and Financial Services.

A famous retail chain in US envisioned delivering a personalized, convenient shopping experience and at the same time reducing administrative cost and increasing employee effectiveness. So they built an Enterprise application system for their store employees. The solution enables store employees to assist customers by giving product demos, enhancing their shopping experience & increasing the sales. Field Force Automation solution in Enterprise mobility has improved a field worker’s productivity by automating the collection and validation of field data and enhancing customer service. The sales representatives are mobile empowered to access CRM system to document sales call details, process customer contact information and verify distribution of product samples, all in real time. Even IT department can benefit from greater mobile efficiency. Giving systems and database administrators the ability to remote monitor performance from any location on the systems and services they are accountable for ensures increase in their efficiency & productivity.

mHealth is a very hot domain and we see with a tablet, a physician can look up patient medical records while making rounds, improving quality of care. Being a key player in enabling mobility in healthcare domain, Endeavour mobile enabled the EMR- EHR-Practice Management Software. The application developed for one of the client helps the physician, Nurses or Physician’s aid to view the patient details, past visit records, health summary and also would help to manage medication refills and orders. App is so strong enough that it can assist in Managing Patient Schedules, Demographics and Maintain Patient Health Summary & Visit Notes. The app gives quick access to Lab Results, refill requests, facilitate internal Messaging, complete Audit trails & generates the needed reports and Dashboards.

A self-service human resource portal with mobile accessibility could reduce administration time and improve job satisfaction for employees. Clarity PPM Smartphone Application is one such app which implements the Timesheet module of the Clarity PPM’s enterprise project and portfolio management solution on the mobile devices. The solution simplifies workflow and enhances the productivity by bringing the concomitant benefits of location independence. The mobility solution helps user to access the timesheet module on the mobile device and to use the functionalities such as update, save and submit for approval. This mobility solution enables the top management and the users to save time in filling the timesheet and approving the same even while they are on the move.

Leading Business Analytics Software and Service Provider's have a challenge of getting access to uninterrupted business information & statistics to keep business goals updated. Endeavour’s Mobile Dashboard Application solution provides them with dashboards which help in knowing the pulse of the organization’s performance. Dashboards are created and maintained through an easy-to-use Web-based interface. All content is displayed in a role-based, secure, customizable, and extensible environment. The mobile client available on Blackberry & Windows Mobile has unique features such as app cache management, auto update and remote wipe off, search, alerts, support to multiple languages & access anytime any where capabilities. The application provides view to key performance and indicators assisting managers to make optimal on-the-spot decisions and provide leadership when away from the office.

The Inventory & Aviation industry is also heavily influenced by mobile technology. iPhone application Mobile Inventory Management helps traders to monitor customer demands and can determine immediately whether the broken valve on the production line is in stock. With RFID tags on the spare parts allow inventory managers with GPS-enabled smartphone to not only verify availability but also determine exactly where (closet, shelf and bin) the goods needed are located in the warehouse. In United Airlines pilots carry iPads which have replaced hefty flight manuals and chart books. With iPad, they are able to quickly and efficiently access reference material without having to thumb through thousands of sheets of paper and reduce clutter on the flight deck.

These successful enterprise mobility case studies confirm the saying that, “the less connected you are to a certain place called work; the better is your productivity.” That’s not conventional thinking but that is becoming the truth as more and more people go mobile and more and more devices are equipped for mobile connectivity. We are seeing an amazing invention of Virtual smartphone Platform which moves smartphone data to the enterprise Cloud by creating a clone of all of the data and applications on the phone. The platform gives IT and end users real-time intelligence and control over smartphone content, activity and applications. Read more about this and many such innovations happening in Mobile cloud computing space in our next blog post.

Webinar on "Enterprise Security & Android Platform" held on August 25, 2011

2011-09-07T17:37:00.000+05:30

The Webinar held on August 25, 2011 by Endeavour Software Technologies, on "Enterprise Security & Android Platform" emphasized on the importance of Enterprise security and the role that Android Platform plays in it.

Data and transaction security has become of paramount importance with increase in mobile application usage in enterprises. The challenges of the security issues faced have become a top priority in every enterprise. Businesses and IT departments are experiencing employees opting for Android phones as corporate communication tools over other Smartphone as they offer powerful apps and innovative hardware specs.

The Webinar covered:

An Overview of Mobility and Mobile Security
Best Practices for Secure Software Development
Android OS specific details with respect to the above

Enterprise Security and Andro...

We would also like to thank the participants for their enormous interest. The positive feedback received from the participants confirms that the Webinar was well received.

Android Application Development

Webinar on "Enterprise Mobility Strategy" held on July 21, 2011

2011-07-28T12:20:00.000+05:30

The Webinar held on July 21, 2011 by Endeavour Software Technologies, on "Enterprise Mobility Strategy" highlighted the 5 Important Factors for a Successful Enterprise Mobility Strategy.

The webinar covered:

Is organization’s mobility strategy ready?
What should be considered for preparing the enterprise mobility strategy?
Is the enterprise well equipped to manage multiple mobile platforms, tablet devices, face the fragmentation & manage those devices effectively?
Has security been considered as a component in the strategy?
Is the IT department ready and well equipped to manage the mobile applications?

We would also like to thank the participants for their enormous interest. The positive feedback received from the participants confirms that the Webinar was well received.

NFC based applications making everyday life easier

2011-07-19T16:44:00.000+05:30

Endeavour is a specialist Mobility Company, helping organizations utilize NFC capabilities on Smartphones. Endeavour has been providing strategic consulting and product development for Mobile enabling businesses in the Manufacturing, Media, Print, Healthcare, Consumer solutions, Telecom and Business Intelligence verticals. Endeavour has a strong mobile application development team on all mobile platforms in the market today, including, RIM, Apple, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, micro Linux, Brew. Endeavour is based out of Austin, Texas, Bangalore India and London, UK.

Imagine it's 2013. You walk into a store; pick up an electronic magnetic trolley. As you buy your groceries you put it inside the trolley. Once you are done with your shopping the total amount will be flashed on a tiny device placed on the trolley. You take out your mobile, wave the device around and click 'pay'. But then, your Smartphone application reminds you that you are eligible for some discount at that store. It calculates the discount and automatically deducts the payable amount from your account. The whole process is complete in a few minutes and all thanks to NFC.

NFC and NFC Forum
NFC i.e Near-field communications a new wireless technology is slowly getting implemented into the mobile sphere. NFC uses Magnetic field induction to enable communication between devices in close proximity. It operates at unlicensed 13.65 MHZ. It’s based on RFID technology, and its open platform technology is approved by ISO/IEC global standard. NFC Forum was formed in 2004. The forum has defined 4 types of tag for operating mode for devices as: Pear2Pear, Reader/Writer & Card emulation.

NFC applications going a long way
NFC, makes it possible to not only use your phone to make purchases in a store, but ultimately replace a lot of other things you normally carry around in your wallet. Applications integrated with NFC enabled phones have the potential to replace hotel room key, business card, public transportation (i.e bus, train) card, concert, sports or other event tickets and also boarding pass for getting on a plane. NFC apps brings a future where your identification, be it your driver’s license, passport, biometric and/or insurance data will be accessible through NFC enabled device. Google Android NFC devices by touching can launch the game on the second device. Using a peer to peer scenario, NFC can also be used to sync devices, share mobile apps with your friends and transfer photos between cameras, smartphones or tablets.

NFC tags have already reached a price point where it is feasible to print off batches of NFC stickers that enable users to create special ‘short cuts’ that make their lives easier. For example, when a child gets home from school, he or she could touch an NFC sticker just inside the door that sends an ‘I’m home from school’ message to a parent. Older people with poor sight or suffering from arthritis could have NFC stickers containing friends’ and family members’ phone numbers saved on them, these could be stuck to the corners of photographs of these people and, when touched with an NFC-enabled phone, would initiate a phone call to the right person, without the need to look up phone numbers.

Restaurants would be able to serve up menus via passer-by simply tapping a device to a sign. Extending the payment option, Endeavour has developed the next generation mobile payment system application. It’s customizable for hospitality domain, where the customers could pay the restaurant bill using his / her iPhone. The application at the launch takes personal & credit card information which would be used to pay the bills. Bill would be presented on the screen with the details like item description and price, discounts (coupons) tax and total bill amount. There is provision to pay tip (could be by percentage of the bill amount or fixed amount) and the app would prompt to enter the CVV no of the credit card before submitting the payment process. The application also screens list of all the past bills and discount (coupons) details.

NFC Services beyond Payment
As mobile commerce emerges, companies like Google, Square, and Apple are placing their bets on some form of mobile payment where the users' smartphone becomes a credit transactional device. Google has teamed up with MasterCard and CitiGroup to produce Google Wallet. Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. One would be able to store credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. US outlets of Starbucks internationally known for its coffee has come out with apps for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry that allow users to pay using their mobile phones at its outlets. The app basically links to a customer's existing Starbucks account through data connection and deducts the amount from it once he has decided to pay using the mobile phone. Silicon Valley startup Naratte claims can do roughly the same thing without adding a chip to the handset. Naratte introduced Zoosh, a technology that lets phones exchange transaction information via inaudible sound waves. Zoosh could also be used for transactions between two handsets, including social transactions such as becoming connected on a social-networking service or exchanging contact information.

2011 will be flooded with NFC devices
As Nokia demoed recently using N9, NFC can allow cell phones to pair with peripherals like speakers or Bluetooth headsets just by coming in contact with them. There is a possibility that the next Xperia range of smartphones from Sony Ericsson will have NFC chip in them. Nokia expected to ship a handful of devices with NFC chip in them by the end of this year. The iPhone 5 with NFC would be one of the most high-profile devices that would try to replace wallet and push mobile payments. Android's devices with gingerbread 2.3.3 has full NFC support where Google has added new capabilities for developers, including updates to the API that now allow for both reading and writing to standard NFC tags. It also has advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when they are launched when an NFC tag comes into range. Blackberry is not behind the race, NFC-enabled BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones based on Blackberry 7 OS support for both tag reading/writing and card emulation applications.

Not so good sides of NFC, which is getting addressed
Now let’s take a second to think about how much cash we walk around with on a daily basis. Next consider the last time you wanted to purchase an item and you were unable to use a credit or debit card. The fact is we don’t see technological advancements have been made in recent years to adequately replace the flimsy plastic and magnetic strip. Lack of smartphone buyers, financial institution reluctant to take a massive risk, software security, likelihood of fraud and theft in the relatively unsecured mobile world are few of the hurdles NFC needs to overcome.

NFC fantasy of making life easier, has to really find answers in the coming months for - What rules, regulations and/or restrictions will be placed on the use of NFC technology? Will we have a situation where Visa’s are only available on Nokia’s or MasterCard on Android? Will we be charged severely or exploited by the owners of this technology? And what benefits do the pioneers of this technology stand to gain? NFC sounds like the future of mobile payments; yet we can’t throw out your credit cards. We would like to forget our wallet at home while stepping out just because we have NFC phones. One could have the world's best NFC technology, but they need to get this embedded in handsets, and retailers have to be able to process it, and consumers have to be given a reason to use it.

State of Mobile Operating Systems - June 2011

2011-06-20T13:08:00.005+05:30

By Jayaraman Raghuraman, Endeavour Software Technologies, Inc.

This articles compares 5 mobile operating systems – iPhone, WebOS, Windows Mobile, Android and Blackberry on the current state of the respective mobile OS and their application development tools support. It indicates the pros and cons of each OS. Further it takes a view on the future of windows mobile and the potential of WebOS. A similar study was done a year back and the same can be reviewed in parallel to see how the platforms have evolved over the last 12 months.

The 5 platforms are described and compared with respect to

iPhone and iPad

Current Version. iOS 4.3 for iPhone and iPad

Base Framework. UNIX based kernel built on OS X. Runs on Apple’s A4 processors for iPhone and Apple’s A5 processor for iPad

Future Visibility. iPhone OS 5.0 release planned for summer 2010 with iCloud support and wireless sync features.

OS Efficiency. Very Stable OS. Optimum use of resources means battery lasts for around 10-12 hours.

Device Management. iOS 4 and above supports Enterprise Device Management through MDM

User Experience. Apple leads this segment! State of the art, ergonomic and user friendly. Support for multi-touch gestures and accelerometer available.

Web Browser. Based on WebKit, supports HTML5, CSS3 web fonts. Quartz style smooth rendering and smart zoom features.

Storage. No external storage. Has Flash memory that varies from model to model. SQLLite and Core data services along with flat files can be used for application data.

Hardware Support.5MP back camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Accelerometer and Multi-touch Retina display for iPhone and 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology for iPad

Multi Tasking. iOS 4.0 and above version supports preemptive multitasking and select background services such as Audio, VOIP and significant location services.

Media Support. Video - H.264, MPEG-4 in .mp4, .m4v, and .mov formats;

Audio - in AAC, MP3, M4a, Apple lossless and Audible

Development environment

Tools and Language. xCode 3.x on Mac OS X 10.6, Objective C

SDK. Apple provides the iPhone SDK v4.3 for iPhone, iPod and iPad apps.

The SDKs are bundled with xCode IDE. Unlike other platforms, development is supported only on Mac OS X 10.6 and above. Core Graphics and core libraries offer developers variety of graphics functions. Open GL support is also available in the SDK.

Developer Support. All developer applications work in a sandbox environment. The OS restricts access to the device except few routine tasks. Developers cannot utilize the device capabilities beyond what is offered by SDK APIs.

The Objective C programming is relatively difficult. Prior knowledge of MacOS X programming is great help.

Application support

App Distribution. Available over the Air via App Store with over 150,000 apps. Private distribution can be done through the enterprise program via iTunes. OTA distribution for Enterprise available in OS 4.0

Enterprise Support. Limited support. Can entertain only one Exchange account, allows PUSH email and real time sync. Supports VPN networks.

Consumer Support. Huge number of applications available on App Store for consumers to download. 25% apps on the App Store are free.

Devices available

Current. Only one model with varied storage size – iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4G. WiFi only iTouch and iPads with varied device storage options. iPad1 and iPad 2 comes with optional 3G support.

Future. Only one device option will be available each for iPhone, iPod and iPad as is currently available.

Pros /Cons

Very powerful API library for variety of touch screen features capabilities of iPhone. These include Swiping, Accelerometer, LBS – Use of GPS, Pinching, Split view and many more

Lot of Development help available in terms of MAC tools

People with prior Apple Development experience can pick up this platform very easily

The OS is limited in terms of allowing developers to build background process, applications and increase the power of the capabilities. Apple has put in lot of restrictions on developers in terms of using the API in different ways than prescribed.

Mobile Device Management with enterprise profiles having option to remote wipe and remote lock gives next level security to enterprise users when compare to the previous iOS versions.

SSL VPN gives an option for security in enterprise data transfer.

Over the Air (OTA) method of downloading enterprise applications is available with iOS 4.0 and above and iOS 5.0 and above will have wireless device setup and sync with iTunes library. This was the feature lacking with MDM.

iMessage application gives an option to exchange messages between iOS user who will have iOS 5 and above OS running. It’s direct competition to BB messenger, which made a huge space in enterprise domain.

iCloud with iOS 5 gives a way to keep all the enterprise data in the cloud even though device is lost.

Multi-tasking – iPhone OS 4 and above supports multitasking but very limited.

In a way, this is a closed platform, as if you need to build applications to run on various mobile platforms, they have to be rewritten.

Enterprise Policy support should be more broadened. Currently many default applications cannot be really blocked or restricted.

It is not possible to lock the device for one Enterprise application all the time, which is a most wanted requirement from many of the enterprise development sponsors.

Air print is supported only for the group of printers.

Android

Current Version Android 2.3.4 for mobile devices and Android 3.1for tablet devices

Base Framework Linux based kernel with core services written in C, C++ and JAVA libraries. It runs on many processor architectures – ARM, MIPS, x86, Power.

Future Visibility Upcoming Android OS code named Ice Cream Sandwich will be converging phone and tablet versions of the OS with single UI across all form factors.

OS Efficiency Performance, efficiency and speed are strong points of all Android smart phones.

Device Management SDK provides device administration features at system level. Different policies can be enforced like settings password quality, max failed password attempts, password expiration, device lock, data wipe, storage encryption etc.

User Experience Very user friendly. Support for Multi-touch gestures and Accelerometer, Magnetometer available at par with iPhone, though iPhone is a shade better.

Optimized graphics library based on OpenGL ES 1.0 specs.

Web Browser based on WebKit, supports HTML5, CSS3 Web fonts.

Storage Supports external storage. Flash memory varies from model to model. SQLLite and native data storage mechanisms are available for applications.

Communication SIP API’s Allows to add SIP-based internet telephony features. Also supports NFC, a short-range wireless technology.

Hardware Support Video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Accelerometer, Gyroscopes, Magnetometer and Multi-touch display with varying display sizes. Some features are device dependent.

Multi Tasking. Full multi-tasking applications can be written.

Media Support. Audio - 3GP, MP3, MP4, MIDI, Wave, Ogg, FLAC(Android 3.1+). Video - H.263, H.264 AVC and MPEG4 SP, VP8 (Android 2.3.3+). Flash 10.1 is supported in v2.2 and above.

Development environment

Tools and Language. Eclipse IDE, JAVA.

SDK. Google offers Android SDK 2.3.4, 3.1 and NDK for developers to write applications. For graphics and rich user interface, OpenGL ES support is available from the SDK and some custom libraries. SDK offers variety of emulators for developers to test, debug and run the applications during development. In build Unit testing tools.

Developer Support. Operating System offers full control of it to the developer application via number of low level APIs and programming hooks. The programming effort is average compared to other platforms. Prior knowledge of JAVA is must. Low level programming, however, demands specialized mobile development skills using NDK.

Application support

Android Market: Over 2,00,000 applications available. However compared to the app stores of other Mobile OS platforms, Android Market has a much higher % of free apps.

25% apps are free on the other app stores – apple, blackberry.

60% apps are free on the Android Market.

App Distribution: Available over the air via Android Market controlled by Google. Private OTA distribution is possible.

Enterprise Support: Limited device management capabilities. Supports VPN connections.

Consumer Support. Considerable amount of applications – 2,00000 - are available for users to download free or at nominal charge. Wide range of device options is available.

Devices available

Current. Droid 2, Xperia, Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy etc. About 150+ devices worldwide.

Future. Multiple device options are to be available from number of manufacturers. This is one of Android’s biggest accelerators and something Apple will find hard to compete against.

Pros / Cons

Open Mobile OS platform, with lot of emerging features that are needed in today’s smart phone. Also enables various touch tone capabilities liked by people on iPhone.
More than 150 devices by various manufacturers.
Truly Multi-threaded, multi-processing OS. Developers can build lot of capabilities, not possible on the Apple iPhone platform.
The OS contains a lot of emulator UI skins that enables a developer to develop the application for one set of screen sizes and intensity, but easily make it available on other screen sizes, sharpness without any development. This is huge for both manufacturers and developers.
Many OEM’s are building net-books / tablets / other mobile devices based on the Google Android platform. Not sure how this ties with the Google Chrome OS.
Android Market is the second most popular application store with more than 2,00,000 applications available for download. 60% of these are free. On other app stores – Apple, Blackberry, about 25% are free.
The Android 3.1 OS is a state of the art mobile OS with features available on standard desktop OS and higher performance. More details available on http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-3.1.html
Enterprise Security and other device administration features will make organizations to include Google Android in the enterprise. This adoption of Android by enterprises will increase in near future

The biggest disadvantage of the Android OS is how they will continue to support the various OS / devices going into the future. Also the vision for Android vs. that of Google Chrome in other devices other than mobile phones is not clear.

Windows Mobile

Current Version. Windows Mobile 6.5. No major OS architecture changes since last 10 years.

Future. This windows mobile version discontinued . No more further releases.

Base Framework. Windows CE 5.2 based kernel with core applications build in Windows C, C++ and Windows API.

Future Visibility. Completely revamped Windows 7 is to be launched later this year. No backward application compatibility.

OS Efficiency. With full usage of WiFi, 3G, GPS and bright display the battery lasts for 5-7 hours.

Device Management. Support for enterprise level device management is available. Exchange Active Sync is available for PUSH emails.

User Experience. Conventional Graphical User Interface. No support for multi-touch gestures and Accelerometer available yet. Windows 7 may have support for these. Windows Mobile certainly lags way behind competition here.

Web Browser. Internet Explorer, Relatively primitive web browser. Supports Flash Lite 3.1. Third party browsers such as Opera are available for download.

Storage. Supports external storage. Flash memory varies from model to model. For application data storage, SQLLite, SQL CE and many third party database tools are available.

Hardware Support. Video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Conventional GUI display with varying display sizes. Some features are device and manufacturer dependent.

Multi Tasking. Full multi-tasking applications can be written.

Media Support. MP3, ASF, WMA, WMV

Development environment

Tools and Language. Visual Studio v6.0, .Net 2008. Embedded Visual C++, Visual C++, and Visual C #.net. Windows 7 uses XNA framework and Silverlight.

SDK. For applications development, Microsoft offers the Windows Mobile SDK bundled with its Visual Studio all in one tool. For graphics functions custom OpenGL ES libraries are available. SDK offers generic emulators to use during development for testing the apps.

Developer Support. Operating System offers full control to the developer. Though low level programming needs specialized mobile development skills. Given the developer community exposure to Microsoft technologies, the learning curve is very shallow.

Application support

Windows Mobile Market Place. Less than 1500 apps. This is a major hurdle for Windows Mobile. However there are number of 3^rd party app stores such as Handango which have over 20,000 windows mobile apps.

App Distribution. Available over the air via Windows Market Place controlled by Microsoft. Private OTA distribution can be done without too much trouble.

Enterprise Support. Available. Device Management Capabilities available through Sync functions and third party software.

Consumer Support. Considerable amount of applications are available for users to download free or at nominal charge on various forums. Wide range of device options is available.

Devices available

Current. Many devices are available. Multiple phone models from variety of manufacturer are available. E.g. HP, Motorola, Palm, HTC etc.

Future. Multiple device options are likely to continue to be available from number of manufacturers. Windows Mobile 7 holds the key to the future.

Pros / Cons

Based on popular .NET developer tools. Supports MS tools including Active Directory, Exchange ,etc easily.
OS was not upgraded for a long time , for over 6 years, and did not support the various rich features available in Android, iPhone, etc. Microsoft waited for a long time to revamp the entire Mobile OS platform. Now, with Windows Mobile 7, people are waiting to see how it has changed. However, none of the apps that exist today will run on WM7, it is not backward compatible.
Microsoft did not impose enough standard on how manufacturers will build devices using their OS. Hence applications built on one device usually causes developer a lot of problems to support on other devices. This increases the cost of supporting various platforms.
The OS is not free. Device manufacturers have to pay a license fee on each device running the OS.

· Existing applications are not compatible from Windows phone 7

Windows Phone

Current Version. Windows Phone 7.1 called as Mango. Launched on October 21, 2010. The new mango version has lot of new features like skydriver (Cloud storage) ,

Base Framework. Windows CE 7 based kernel with core applications build in Windows C, C++ and Windows API.

Future Visibility. Multitasking, IE9 (including GPU acceleration), Twitter, GPU acceleration, People hub, SkyDrive syncing of Office documents

Nokia has partnered with Microsoft for next generation Windows Phone devices.

OS Efficiency. Dual Core Support (SMP, ARMv6), WIFI Positioning System, IE7, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), Cellcore, Bluetooth 2.1

Device Management. Support for enterprise level device management is available. Exchange Active Sync is available for PUSH emails.

User Experience. Conventional Graphical User Interface. Support for multi-touch gestures and Accelerometer available. XNA Orientation, Microsoft’s game platform supporting both 2D sprite-based and 3D graphics with traditional game-loop architecture.

Web Browser. Internet Explorer, Relatively primitive web browser. Supports Flash Lite 3.1 and Silverlight

Storage. Supports external storage. Flash memory varies from model to model. For application data storage, SQLLite, SQL CE and isolated storage in the application space

Hardware Support. Video Camera, A-GPS, GPU, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Conventional GUI display with varying display sizes. Some features are device and manufacturer dependent.

Media Support. MP3, ASF, WMA, WMV

Development environment

Tools and Language. Visual Studio Net 2010. Visual C #.net. XNA framework and Silverlight.

SDK. For applications development, Microsoft offers the Windows Phone developer tools compatible only with Visual Studio 2010l. For graphics functions XNA libraries are available. SDK offers generic emulators to use during development for testing the apps.

Developer Support. Operating System application layer to the developer to develop and run the application. Given the developer community exposure to Microsoft technologies, the learning curve is very shallow.

Application support

Windows Phone Market Place. More than 1500 apps. This is a major hurdle for Windows Phone.

App Distribution. Available over the air via Windows Market Place controlled by Microsoft. Private OTA distribution can be done without too much trouble.

Enterprise Support. Available. Device Management Capabilities available through Active Sync and Push Notification

Consumer Support. Considerable amount of applications are available for users to download free or at nominal charge on market place. Wide range of device options is available.

Devices available

Current. Many devices are available. Multiple phone models from variety of manufacturer are available. E.g. HTC, Nokia.

Future. Multiple device options are likely to continue to be available from number of manufacturers. Windows Phone 7 holds the key to the future.

Pros / Cons

Based on popular .NET developer tools. Supports MS tools including Active Directory, Exchange, etc easily.

There is no backward compatibility, As this is newly introduced. Supports the various rich features available in Android, iPhone, etc. Microsoft waited for a long time to revamp the entire Mobile OS platform. Now, with Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft did impose enough standard on how manufacturers will build devices using their OS. This increases the cost of supporting various platforms.
Multi Tasking applications can be written, but very limited.

The OS is not free. Device manufacturers have to pay a license fee on each device running the OS.

Web OS

Current Version. WebOS v2.0 The most developer friendly OS ever! The new beta version got released recently

Future Visibility. webOS 3.0 release planned for summer 2010 with iCloud support and wireless sync features.

HP’s WebOS 3.0 features a neat notification system, along with the ability to multitask with a card-based method to switch between open apps, group related tasks in a stack of cards, and flick apps off with a simple finger gesture.

Recently HP has taken a step forward with “Enyo Framework” which replaces with Mojo. With this change HP expect some of highlighted features like Faster performance, Hardware acceleration, Browser based development and so on.

Base Framework. Monolithic Linux based kernel with proprietary components developed by HP (Palm). Runs on ARM processors.

Future Visibility. Recent takeover by HP might define a clearer roadmap in the next quarter.

OS Efficiency. Open OS. Very efficient in handling multiple tasks with proper utilization of the resources such as WiFi, 3G, GPS makes for longer battery life.

Device Management. Support for enterprise level device management is optionally available. Exchange Active Sync is available for Push emails.

User Experience. At par with iPhone/Android. Multi touch gestures and support for Accelerometer are available.

Web Browser. WebKit based browser with support for HTML5 and CSS 3 standards.

Storage. OS Supports external storage. None of the current devices have it though. For the application data storage SQLLite is available.

Hardware Support: Video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Slide Out or Candy Bar Keyboard (QWERTY). Has Accelerometer and multi touch gesture touch screen. Inductive charging support available.

Multi Tasking: Full multi-tasking applications can be written.

Media Support. Audio formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV; Video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

Development environment

Tools and Language. Eclipse IDE, JavaScript, HTML

SDK. WebOS SDK is available to developers. Developers use Ares for UI building with webOS mojo Framework SDK underneath. For the plug-in application development, WebOS PDK is available. The SDK also offers various emulators to be used for the development testing and debugging.

Developer Support. Operating System offers full control of it to the developer application via number of low level APIs and programming hooks. Web developers may easily develop programs. No specific knowledge on Mobile development is necessary.

Application support

App Distribution. Available over the air via Palm App Catalog controlled by Palm. The private OTA distribution can be done. Code Signing is mandatory.

Enterprise Support. Available. Device Management Capabilities available through Sync functions and third party software.

Consumer Support. Limited. Device hardware options available in the market are very limited.

Devices available

Current. HP Pre, HP Pre2, HP Pre3, HP Pixi, Pixi plus Tablets : HP Touchpad

Future. No clear roadmap available. However indications are that HP WebOS tablet is one way in which HP is looking to use WebOS.

Pros / Cons

Based on very popular web development kit and JavaScript. Makes it easy for web developers to learn this new platform.
HP will probably announce a variety of devices, thus spreading the adoption of WebOS as a new platform. This will probably compete with Android and Windows Mobile as an OS options available to device manufacturers. There is also a school of thought which suggests that by October 2010, Web OS is headed for the HP WebOS Tablet.
The upcoming released of HP Touch pad webOS 3.0 is expected to be released in 2nd quarter. We have to wait and touch for usability and performance related information.

The WebOS was taken up initially by lot of developers and development organizations, but the interest waned due to lack of devices running the OS. A resurgence is likely now that HP will spend on ensuring that developers get the necessary support for the platform

Blackberry

Current Version. Blackberry 6.0, Future Release: Blackberry 7.0

Base Framework. RIM proprietary OS, Java development Framework.

Future Visibility. Blackberry 7.0 and Blackberry Playbook.

Also the new Blackberry Tables runs on QNX® Neutrino® RTOS platform. Blackberry aims to integrate with QNX platform for upcoming Smartphone’s. The Playbook can run all Blackberry and Android Applications too.

OS Efficiency.. Very efficient in handling multiple tasks with proper utilization of the resources such as WiFi, 3G, GPS makes for longer battery life.

Device Management. Fully functional enterprise support is available using BES. Also can be integrated with Microsoft’s exchange server.

User Experience. Not so good as the iPhone/Android, however with the new 6.0 OS the User experience has improved significantly.

Web Browser. From Blackberry OS version 6.0 & above has fully functional support for HTML5

Storage. OS Supports external storage. For the application data storage SQLLite is available.

Hardware Support. Video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Slide Out or Candy Bar Keyboard (QWERTY). Has Accelerometer and multi touch gesture touch screen. Inductive charging support available.

Multi Tasking: Full functional multi-tasking applications can be written.

Media Support. Audio formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV; Video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

Development environment

Tools and Language: Eclipse IDE, JAVA, Blackberry JDE.

SDK. JDK 4.3, 4.5, 4.7, 5.0 and 6.0, 6.2(7.0)

Application Support

App distribution. Over the air via Blackberry App Store. Private OTA distribution is also possible.

Enterprise support. Complete support managing the entire MDM model is available.

Supports VPN connections.

Consumer support. Considerable amount of applications are available for users to download free or at nominal charge. Wide range of device options is available.

Devices Available

Current: Curve, Pearl, Bold, Storm, Tour, Storm 2, Bold 2, Torch, Blackberry Playbook.

Future : QNX Real time operating system

Pros / Cons

Blackberry is a popular enterprise device; it provides lot flexibility to develop application on the low level.
Features like GPS, Wi-Fi, Multi tasking are more advantageous for developers
For the past one year, Blackberry has changed its strategy to focus on consumer market. The new release of Blackberry OS 7 and Playbook has boosted the blackberry in consumer market. However it is very early stage to predict. It has still long way to go.

Blackberry has lot of devices, developing application and make it compatible for all those devices is a huge task for the developers

Trends

2010—except for Microsoft, which saw a 20.3 percent decline.

Data source: Gartner

The clear winners are iPhone and Android. Android more so – a growth of 800%YoY – backed by multiple carriers, buoyed by strong marketing campaigns. It is almost given that both of these will catch up with Blackberry in too for a horizon.

In the US, Android (28%) has already raced to the 2^nd spot displacing iPhone OS(21%). RIM (36%) continues to be number one.

Phones grow, Smartphone even more.

Overall, the global mobile phone sales totaled approx 315 million units in Q1 2010 – a 17 percent increase over Q2 2009.

Smartphone sales to end-users reached 54.3 million units - an increase of 48.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2009.

Worldwide Smartphone Operating System 2011 and 2015 Market Share and 2011-2015 Compound Annual Growth Rate

Operating System	2011 Market Share	2015 Market Share	2011-2015 Unit CAGR
Android	38.9%	43.8%	23.7%
BlackBerry OS	14.2%	13.4%	18.3%
Symbian	20.6%	0.1%	-68.8%
iOS	18.2%	16.9%	17.9%
Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile	3.8%	20.3%	82.3%
Others	4.3%	5.5%	27.6%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	20.1%

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, June 9, 2011.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q11 (Thousands of Units)

Company	1Q11 Units	1Q11 Market Share (%)	1Q10 Units	1Q10 Market Share (%)
Android	36,267.8	36.0	5,226.6	9.6
Symbian	27,598.5	27.4	24,067.7	44.2
iOS	16,883.2	16.8	8,359.7	15.3
Research In Motion	13,004.0	12.9	10,752.5	19.7
Microsoft	3,658.7	3.6	3,696.2	6.8
Other OS	3,357.2	3.3	2,402.9	4.4
Total	100,769.3	100.0	54,505.5	100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2011)

Multi Platform Mobile Development Approach

2011-06-02T20:21:00.000+05:30

One of the biggest challenges faced by the IT teams of large organizations is their ability to support multiple platforms. This gets further burgeoned as mobile OSes continue to wax and wane, the pressing question remains: Which devices to support and which to ignore? Added to this is the even increasing demand from the users for more and more applications and in a shorter period of time.

Endeavour, “The Mobility Company”, has been into mobile solutions, consulting, and advisory space for the past nine years and we have seen the mobile platforms evolve as well as stupor. We have seen evolution of cross-OS platform solutions coming to the fore and promising to offer almost everything which is possible on a native platform but the truth is that they are only alternatives and in no way come even close to native application development.

The approach to multiple mobile platform support therefore lies with the ability to build reusable components, which could be readily customized thereby minimizing the development time and effort while retaining the strengths of native application development on respective platforms.

Middleware at the same time also plays key role in mobile solutions, and has evolved along with the mobile devices, the technologies and the demanding needs created by this combination. These middleware cater to various needs such as multiple file formats, media formats, data sources, content re purposing and so on. A common middleware catering to multiple platforms is a challenge on its own, as the middleware has to play key role of handling multiple content formats and converting them to overcome the limitations in individual platforms.

Mobile Enterprise Knowledge Platform (MEKP)

At Endeavour, these common routines and re-usable components form an enterprise application development repository. Mobile Enterprise Knowledge Platform (MEKP) has huge knowledge base of components and each of these components holds individual responsibility for managing the application system. They are well managed, reviewed, documented for re-utilization.

Mobile Enterprise Knowledge Platform is a collection of components that comprises of three sections.

1. Mobile Application Layer

2. Middleware components

3. Data connectivity layer

Each section holds responsibility of inter exchange of data across the layers on various modules.

Mobile Application Layer: It is a collection re-usable component specifically made for mobile platforms. Each component is created to act independently and is also capable of adding services for the mobile application.

Middleware components: This component acts as a data storage and data exchange layer between the Mobile Application layer and the backend system. It comprises of various component that are common for all listed mobile platforms. A common workflow model has been formed to exchange the data between these modules.

Data connectivity Layer: This layer holds responsibility for establishing and managing connections between the middleware and backend system. There are external interface connectors provided to interact with backend system.

Conclusion

So, if you are planning for a mobile application and struggling to figure our the best platform to select as well as manage the development effort within your schedule then we should be able to assist.

mobile application development

Mobile enabling e-learning solutions

2011-04-19T10:18:00.001+05:30

Introduction. Education systems have evolved over a period of time starting from the traditional class room based systems to Distance education systems to where we are today. The inability of the working elite, to attend class room based sessions generated the need for distance education. Technology has come a long way and has added great amount of value in the success of distance education. The growth and reach of technology to the common man has been so enormous that, today, e-Learning has become a part and parcel of each and every distance education working model.

Convenience and technology being the prime drivers in the evolution of education systems, the next obvious step is to recognize the amount of convenience provided by smart phones and the rapid technological advances which are working wonders on the smart phones. Considering the fact that the number of mobile phones has already overtaken the number of personal computers, it is a matter of time before smart phones repeat the same. And it makes all the sense for the e-Learning industry to extend their solutions to get into the m-Learning mode. This article delves into the growth trends of both e-Learning, smart phones, the shortcomings of the e-Learning mode and how m-Learning fills the gap. Apart from the same, the article also covers a high level overview on the readiness check that the e-Learning solution providers need to perform to ensure that they are ready for the m-Learning revolution and how Endeavour could help them in their journey.

Growth of e-Learning. A report from Ambient Insight claims that the demand for e-Learning is growing by a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8% and revenues will reach $49.6 billion by 2014. North America will remain as the biggest market. The growth rates in Asia are astounding as well. The compound annual growth rate in Asia is a very healthy 33.5%.By 2014, Asia(which includes Australia and New Zealand in this report) would overtake Western Europe to become the second largest market after North America.

Shortcomings of e-Learning. As detailed earlier, convenience and technology have been the prime drivers of the evolution of educational system. Looking at the current trends on convenience, e-Learning has its own shortcomings when it comes to catering to people on the move. Consumers are bound to a specific location as they have to depend on a Personal Computer with Internet connectivity and the dependent resources. Though laptops seem to bridge the gap, they have their own shortcomings, as one need to go through the hassles of opening a laptop, power on or booting time, ensuring connectivity, limited battery capacity, space and comfort levels while travelling to name a few.

How Smartphone fills the gap? On the contrary the Smartphone fills the gap perfectly, where the consumer can access the content anytime and anywhere as long as they have network connectivity, making the learning solution truly mobile. The Smartphone proliferation and its penetration in the society have grown leaps and bounds over a few years and the future growth trends are amazing. These facts obviously make m-Learning as the next step in the evolution of the educational system. The statistics on the growth rate of mobiles and mobile internet from Tomi T Ahonen, depicted in Fig 1. , stand a proof for the same.

Figure 1: Growth of Mobile devices and the Mobile Internet

What does it take to mobile enable an e-Learning solution? Having established the fact that, m-Learning is the way forward, let’s take a look at what it takes to extend the existing e-Learning Solutions to the mobile devices. At a high level the Solution architecture is the key and if the solution has been architected with SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) as the base, things become easier, as the extension to the mobile devices is the only missing link. However, the other solution elements also need to be studied in detail as we get into the finer details of mobilizing any e-Learning solution.

Here again the mobile extension can be either web based or a native application can be built, depending upon the type of the e-Learning solution. Native mobile applications are applications which reside on the mobile device and interact with the server side components for the data. Mobile websites are nothing but enabling the existing websites to work on the mobile. To provide some more clarity, websites do not work the same way as it works on a Personal Computer, when it is accessed from a mobile. So essentially there is an effort involved in mobile enabling a website and this effort depends upon the complexity of the website and the technology involved.

How can Endeavour help? Endeavour Software Technologies can help you perform a detailed assessment of your existing solution and can come up with the cost and the schedule for mobile enabling your e-Learning solution. Endeavour also has the advantage of designing and implementing a m-Learning solution which can be a hybrid solution having elements of a native application as well as a mobile website, thereby bringing in the best of both the modes, resulting in a perfect user experience.

Act Now. To tap the immense potential being generated by the m-Learning revolution, the e-Learning solution providers should act now, before it is late.

About Endeavour – The Mobility Company^TM

Endeavour is a specialist Mobility company since 2002. Endeavour has been providing strategic consulting and product development for Mobile enabling businesses in the Manufacturing, Media, Print, Healthcare, Consumer solutions, Telecom and Business Intelligence verticals. Endeavour has a strong mobile application development team on all mobile platforms in the market today, including, RIM, Apple, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, micro Linux, Brew. Endeavour is based out of Austin, Texas, Bangalore India and London, UK.

iPhone Application Development, Android Application Development, Blackberry Application Development

Webinar on "mHealth and Mobility in Healthcare" held on March 2, 2011

2011-03-03T14:28:00.001+05:30

The webinar held on March 2, 2011 by Endeavour Software Technologies, on mobile adoption by industries in it’s focus on healthcare and mHealth initiatives. This details the fast adoption of smartphones and tablet devices within the medical profession and how it is influencing health outcomes.

The webinar covered:

Mobile Evolution in Healthcare
Mobile Healthcare Trends - Past, Present & Future
mHealth initiatives all around the world
Examples of innovative mobile applications across iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, iPAD and other mobile devices
The future and the impact of iPAD on the healthcare industry

Presentation Link

We would also like to thank the participants for their enormous interest. The positive feedback received from the participants confirms that the Webinar was well received.

mHealth , Healthcare

Webinar on "Revolutionizing Print Media through new form factor mobile devices"

2011-02-08T13:59:00.001+05:30

The media companies need to take cognizance and leverage the increasing penetration of 7" to 11" tablet as a replacement for desktops/laptops, else prepare to perish. This is rightly justified with over 250+ news and media applications already available on various mobile application stores and increasing number of media companies directly leapfrogging to leverage the mobile/tablet revolution even with no prior experience of print edition including some biggies such as Virgin and News Corp.
Roughly about +50 newspapers in USA want to embrace mobile in the next 3 months. This webinar held on February 2, 2011 presented an insight into the following aspects of the publishing industry
    •    Current Trend and Challenges
    •    First Second generation mobile apps
    •    Value creation though 3rd generation mobile apps
    •    Innovation in Advertisement
    •    Positioning via mobile devices

Presentation Link

We would also like to thank the participants for their enormous interest. The positive feedback received from the participants confirms that the Webinar was well received.

Mobile Application Development

A Mobile Market Analysis for Q3-2010

2010-10-29T14:08:00.007+05:30

Summary

The third quarter proved to be a quiet one with continuation of some important trends, as compared to the second quarter. The quarter began with many new launches and announcements by the key players of the industry and has ended with many expectations from the next quarter.

The following sections highlight the happening of the Q3, followed by what to expect from the Q4.

Android built its already impressive momentum at the expense of iOS and Blackberry OS, further fueling the raging battle between Apple & Google. Research in Motion maintained its lead in the U.S., while its new Torch device — which sports the new BlackBerry 6.0 OS — received tepid reviews. Apple while facing a lot of issues in its new mobile advertising business in competition to Google and other players, has achieved huge success from iPAD launch by tapping a market that simply did not exist just a few months ago.

What happened in Q3?

Blackberry launched new Torch device, the new OS 6.0 and the Playbook

Though the users now have many options of robust platforms for their mobile phones, Blackberry OS has remained the choice of many business users since ages. Blackberry launched their new handset Torch which runs on the Blackberry OS 6.0, the latest OS version, with a vision to overhaul the complete platform. While RIM has staked its distant future to the QNX operating system, it will need to bring in supported handsets to market.

RIM finally revealed their iPAD rival, the Playbook, after months of speculation, rumors and hype. RIM’s Mike Lazardis was quoted saying “Playbook is going to be the first professional tablet.” The Playbook is being seen as a serious challenge to iPAD; with a dual core 1 GHz unit CPU, based on ARM Cortex A9 Architecture with a 7 inch screen. The PlayBook is supported by "BlackBerry Tablet OS" with symmetric multiprocessing and "true multitasking"—posing a serious challenge to "completeness" of the iPad.

Launch of the Playbook is being categorized as the comeback for RIM into the smartphone market.

Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7

Microsoft launched their Windows Phone 7 in early Q3, though the phone is not expected to be available in the market until next month. The industry is already filled with expectations that WP7 is strong enough to the dominating operating systems in wireless, Android & iOS. Microsoft has played this one very carefully and has mandated specific futures (such as three hardware buttons). Moreover, it has maintained the role of quality assurance enforcer for all the supporting handsets expected to be launched in the market.

Apple launched iOS 4.0 in June 2010, iPad turned out to be an unqualified hit

Apple launched iPhone 4 in late June while already enjoying the success with iPad. Apple is expected to ship 12 million units by end of the year and has planned to sell 28 million iPads in 2011. The most remarkable aspect of the iPad’s success is the fact that a market for tablets among mainstream consumers simply didn’t exist just a few months ago. Approximately 80 new tablets are expected to be launched in the next six months. Among those expected to produce Android tablets are Archos, Acer, Cisco, Dell, LG, Motorola and Samsung; other likely entrants include Hewlett-Packard (for webOS), RIM (for BlackBerry OS) and Nokia (for MeeGo). We expect to see a few successful launches in the space over the next several months, particularly among tablets priced at $300 or less.

The Market Shares

Android sales overtook iPhone in the US and it captured nearly one-third of all new smartphone sales in the U.S. till August. Android is the only one amongst its competitors which grew its market share by 5 % and was at 17 % by end of July. Though Blackberry still retained its leadership in U.S, but still it observed a drop from 41 % to 39.3 % during the period. Apple observed a drastic drop from 25.1 % on April to 11.8 % in July though Apple did surpass RIM in Global Smartphones Share.

Android has not only been successful just in the U.S market but across the world surging to No. 1 in recent sales. Google grabbed the most market share and overtook iOS during the second quarter of 2010, taking a leap from a mere 1.8% to 17.2% in just one year. Though Apple saw its share grows nominally from 13% to 14.2 %, while it was still better than the rest of the platforms which lost ground. The important fact to note is that the market share gains from Android and iOS occurred as the Smartphone space expands by more than 50 percent year-over-year.

So thereby implying that these platforms are quickly capturing the new users and increasing their market shares by manifolds. The windows mobile’s was missed ant it was obvious as Microsoft was busy launching the new OS. The new OS is expected to turn numbers in favour of Microsoft as compared to its competitors.

Android’s ample handsets and presence with multiple carriers across the world might impact Apple’s growth in the coming quarter. But iPhone and primarily iPad should keep the numbers positive in Apple’s court. While Android will continue its breakneck pace, Apple will continue to be seen as the elite manufacturer in the space.

Mobile Advertising

Mobile marketing took more of a local twist during the third quarter. The traditional Internet companies are vying for a piece a U.S. mobile local ad industry that BIA/Kelsey predicts will explode from $213 million in 2009 to $2.02 billion in 2014.

Apple will likely have a 21 percent share of the mobile ad market by the end of 2010, according to IDC, as it eats into the market share of Google and Microsoft.

Perhaps the biggest news in the space, though, was Apple’s move to allow third-party ad networks such as Google’s AdMob to fully leverage its iAd platform. Apple revised its iPhone Developer Program License in September, enabling other ad networks to access analytics and other information considered crucial for deploying and tracking mobile ad campaigns. The move ended a standoff between Apple and Google; the latter (like many other companies) had previously been barred from accessing such data in iAd.

Takeaways of Q3

ü Android has taken over the market from all the other mobile platforms and has become the dominant mobile OS, giving direct competition to iOS. The Android OS has many advantages, being an open source platform; it is bound to cause problems to the other platforms, mobile phone manufacturers and OEMs.

ü iPad has succeeded in creating a demand for tablets in the market, this has also given rise to a number of companies launching their own tablets to compete with Apple. This might lead to supply outweighing the demand, which might lead to more failures than successes.

ü With the surge of mobile platforms and launch of smartphones, thereby exploding the market with huge choices, has led to the advertisers capturing this mode of advertising. The location based advertisements is bound to increase with expansion of the mobile phones market and thereby giving the mobile advertising a boost. The location based advertising is going to be a success while this includes a consumer’s concern about security and privacy.

The ad networks will have to provide some transparency to the current system which lacks any visibility to bring in the location based advertising and make it a success.

ü The technology is also advancing faster with 4G’s presence; it is bound to provide faster networks. But the onus also lies on the carriers to provide the services on large family of devices to enhance their reach to customers and hence the market shares. The congestion in the networks is going to be the challenge in the coming years, adding worries to the telephone operators.

What to expect from Q4?

Launch of Windows Phone

After windows Phone 7 OS unveiling in Barcelona, finally the phones will be launched in the market in October & November. Microsoft has announced ten Windows Phone 7 handsets for 30 countries, some available from late October in select European & Asian Markets while others from early November in US.

The phones will find their way to over 60 cell phone operators in more than 30 countries this year. Microsoft tapped Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung to deliver the handsets with a carrier list that includes AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Vodafone, TELUS, América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, and Telstra. This is just for the initial launch -- Microsoft has even more handsets coming in 2011 including the first one for Sprint and Verizon in the US.

Launch of iOS 4.2 with unified support for iPad & iPhone alike
The iOS 4.2 for iPad is going to bring together the iPhone & iPad under unified support. This OS upgrade includes a number of features already built, optimized & released for the iPhone including multi-tasking, folders support and unified mail inboxes.

Airprint wireless printing for Apple devices

Apple will be launching the Airprint wireless printing for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices in November with the iOS 4.2 launch.

The key feature of AirPrint would be that it can automatically finds printers on local networks and print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software. HP’s existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices.

The iPhone CDMA will come on Verizon network early next year

Verizon Wireless will be selling Apple's iPad in its stores starting Oct. 28, which hints that the rumors in the Smartphone industry about Apple launching a iPhone CDMA with the Verizon Network might be true.

If this is true then it should not be a long wait for the Verizon wireless customers who had been longing for an iPhone. This will probably end AT&T’s exclusive contract for iPhone in US. The Verizon network is building & testing the 4G network which is based on a technology called Long Term Evolution. But it is speculated that the iPhone that uses the 4G network will likely not be available with the Verizon Network until at least the second half of 2011.

The Android gingerbread aka 3.0 will be out in Beta phase soon

With each platform launching a new OS, Android is also not lagging behind. Everyone is awaiting Android’s gingerbread’s launch which will be the next level Android OS. The Gingerbread, or Android 3.0, is intended to represent the high-end smartphones whereas lower end devices will stick with its brother the Android 2.2/2.1.

There are going to be many new features of the Android 3.0, including a completely new user interface. It will have animated transitions between mobile applications and screens. The Android 3.0 will support displays with 1280 x 760 resolution, which is bound to drastically increase the HD quality of the display.

Blackberry Playbook development SDK is out in Beta and being used for Adobe AIR (action script) based application

RIM is promoting their Playbook by a plan to provide one free BlackBerry PlayBook to every registered vendor with a BlackBerry App World, with an approved AIR application that is available for the BlackBerry PlayBook prior to launch.

Adobe’s AIR software developer kit (SDK) apparently has some inbuilt relationship with the PlayBook’s operating system, which would allow developers to easily create some powerful applications.

The Q3 has ended with announcements for new launches by the pioneer players in the smartphone industry, thereby raising hopes of the consumers in the Q4.

Blackberry Application for XIX Commonwealth Games

2010-10-01T09:57:00.007+05:30

The Commonwealth Games were first held in 1930 as the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada. The event was renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and from 1978 are named as the Commonwealth Games. The Games are held every four years in which all the member nations and territories of the Commonwealth of Nations participate in a multi-sport event which features competitions involving thousands of elite athletes. The Commonwealth Games are one of the world’s largest multi-sport events.
The vibrant city of New Delhi, home to 14 million people, will be hosting the XIX Commonwealth Games from 3 October 2010. This will be the first time India has hosted the Games and only the second time the event has been held in Asia (Kuala Lumpur in 1998 was the first).
The logo itself is in an invitation to every person across all divides – Indian and Commonwealth - to let go of themselves and participate in the Games to the best of their abilities, in the true sprit of the Games.

Come Out and Participate

With a vision to make this dream successful wherein every person is able to participate and Cheer for their respective countries and sportsperson, Endeavour – The Mobility Company, has developed “CWGames” Mobile Application to facilitate the sharing of experiences of Commonwealth Games 2010.

The solution would help visitors, fans and attendees of Commonwealth Games 2010 to keep themselves updated with the latest happenings in the Game Village comprising of

Medal History

Access to the details of records established in the previous CW Games sorted by Game, Sport, Event and Country. The user can also view the latest results from various sporting events during the XIX Commonwealth Games as it progresses.

Event Schedule

The application will provide detailed schedule of events along with information related to various games and map view feature to facilitate the visitors in locating the venue in Games Village.

Cheer My Country

The users will be able to cheer for their country by playing Cheer Sounds and voting for their respective nations. They can also save new and innovative sounds which would be then available to other users to use as Cheer Sounds.

Commonwealth Photos

The application allows the users to take pictures of their athletes as they perform share, upload and share their experiences with their friends and colleagues. This ensures access to latest happenings around the Game Village even in cases when the user is not physically present.

In Summary, CWG Mobile application provides blackberry users to get all the latest updates on Commonwealth Games 2010 along with enriched interactivity such as cheer country with excellent sounds, upload/share CWG photos & messages which are Unique and Entertaining. This application provides details about the past history, guide maps to events venue, latest Medal standings and Event Schedules. The Voting for the Favorite message/sound of the day feature allows the user to Live Through the CWG Games. Stand a chance to win BlackBerry phones by simply uploading your photos and cheers!

Rahul Aggarwal, MD, Endeavour Software Technologies, said the CWGames Blackberry application will mark a dramatic shift towards how people participate in the games and share their experiences with fellow members. According to him this application will provide a unique experience and set new standards for the Games to come. "We are excited about having this application available exclusively to Airtel BlackBerry customers and the value that it would bring to the visitors of Commonwealth Games," he said.

Endeavour Software Technologies is a niche mobile solutions services company since 2002. The company offers Technology Solutions geared towards building Enterprise and Consumer Mobility Solutions for various verticals including Healthcare, Finance and Banking, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Consumer Oriented Organizations as well as market research, publishing and PR firms.

Apple introduces iOS 4.1; iTunes 10 and Ping Are Here; New Apple TV

2010-09-02T11:45:00.000+05:30

Apple introduces iOS 4.1

· First major release after iPhone 4 release.

· There are bug fixes for some of the user reported problems related to the proximity sensor, Bluetooth and iPhone 3G users upgrading to iOs 4.

· Premiers Gamecenter, announced at the WWDC

· New feature called HDR for the iPhone 4 camera. HDR essentially takes three pictures, an overexposed an underexposed and mid range and combines them so that highlights are captured properly.

· Upgrade will be available next week and the price is free for all supported devices.

Apple also announced iOS 4.2 that will bring iOS to the iPad in November along with new features for printing as well as a new media sharing feature called AirPlay.

The 4.2 release will also be available for the iPhone and iPod touch along with iPad.

New iPods

· Continuing its tradition, this fall event on sept 1 announced new iPod Shuffle, Nano and Touch.

· iPod shuffle combines the features of last two generations. Buttons plus VoiceOver and playlist features.

· iPod nano - now in generation six is really new! A tiny Multi-Touch screen without click wheel, still no video, camera or games. It looks like as if using the iOS like iTouch but one of the blogger who has actually spoken to reps onsite said that its not on iOS. But i think in near future we shall start having some apps for it too.

· iPod touch – It now has a retina display like the iPhone 4 along with the Gyroscope, the A4 and two cameras front and back. There’s FaceTime support. The rear camera will do 720p HD video but it’s not a multi-mega pixel for stills.

New iTunes 10

· Apple has built a social networking service called Ping as part of the iTunes app, centered around music. More like fusion of twitter and Facebook. Users can follow other users and as well as artists.

· The new Ping will be available in iOS.

· It’s an important direction for Apple and it sets the stage for a whole new set of services and functions down the road.

· This might be one of the most important pieces of news longterm from today’s announcements.

New Apple TV

· 4 times thinner and smaller than existing TV has no storage and completely internet based.

· Can connect over WiFi or direct cable and has Netflix and Youtube support in built.

· It’s totally built around a rental model, not a purchase model although you can still connect to your computer and your iTunes library and stream any content that’s there.

· First TV networks to join for renting the shows are ABC and FOX

· Ports include Ethernet, HDMI, USB, optical audio and no power brick.

· By not attempting to include DVR functionality Apple sidesteps the battle for input one on the TV set. It’s a very different approach that Google is taking.

· The bloggers expect there’s going to be some questions of a TV device with no apps. The app eco system for TVs can make sense, like the iPhone before it, Apple needs to educate the market on a paradigm shift.

· This Apple TV is a reset in many ways and the TV a device with very entrenched habits and behaviors. Before consumers can make a shift to that model, Apple needs to establish a position in the living room.

· There’s also a lot of issues in terms of user experience, command and control and content rights that need to be figured out.

State of the Mobile OS Environments - May 2010

2010-08-11T13:55:00.001+05:30

By Jayaraman Raghuraman, VP – North America, Endeavour Software Technologies, Inc.

This document compares 4 mobile operating systems – iPhone, WebOS, Windows Mobile, Android on the current state of the respective mobile OS and their application development tools support. It indicates the pros and cons of each OS. Further it takes a view on the future of windows mobile and the potential of WebOS.

The 4 platforms are described with respect to

Operating System

Current Version. OS 3.1.2 for iPhone, OS3.2 for iPad

Base Framework. UNIX based kernel built on OS X. Runs on ARM processors

Future Visibility. iPhone OS 4.0 release planned for summer 2010 with added support for select background services for apps and multitasking. Enterprise support and consumer game center is part of new OS upgrade.

OS Efficiency. Very Stable OS. Optimum use of resources means battery lasts for around 10-12 hours.

Device Management. No direct support for enterprise level device management. Support must be built in applications that run on it.

User Experience. Apple leads this segment! State of the art, ergonomic and user friendly. Support for multi-touch gestures and accelerometer available.

Web Browser. Based on WebKit, supports HTML5, CSS3 web fonts. Quartz style smooth rendering and smart zoom features.

Storage. No external storage. Has Flash memory that varies from model to model. SQLLite and Core data services along with flat files can be used for application data.

Hardware Support. 2 MP Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Accelerometer and Multi-touch HVGA display.

Multi Tasking. Current version has only default phone apps multi task. User apps do not run in Multi-tasking mode. OS 4.0 is planned to have preemptive multitasking and select background services such as Audio etc. But this is also limited.

Media Support. Video - H.264, MPEG-4 in .mp4, .m4v, and .mov formats;

Audio - in AAC, MP3, M4a, Apple lossless and Audible

Development Environment

Tools and Language. xCode 3.x on Mac OS X 10.6, Objective C

SDK. Apple provides the iPhone SDK v3.1.3 for iPhone and iTouch apps and v3.2 for iPad apps.

The Objective C programming is relatively difficult. Prior knowledge of MacOS X programming is great help and in some sense a must.

Application support

Enterprise Support. Limited support. Can entertain only one Exchange account, allows PUSH email and real time sync. No true device management support. Supports VPN networks.

Consumer Support. Huge number of applications available on App Store for consumers to download. 25% apps on the App Store are free.

Devices available

Current. Only one model with varied storage size – iPhone 3GS. WiFi only iTouch and iPads with varied device storage options. iPad also comes with optional 3G support.

Future. Only one device option will be available each for iPhone, iPod and iPad as is currently available.

Pros /Cons

Very powerful API library for variety of touch screen features capabilities of iPhone. These include Swiping, Accelerometer, LBS – Use of GPS, Pinching, Split view and many more

Lot of Development help available in terms of MAC tools

People with prior Apple Development experience can pick up this platform very easily

The OS is limited in terms of allowing developers to build background process, applications and increase the power of the capabilities. Apple has put in lot of restrictions on developers in terms of using the API in different ways than prescribed.

Multi-tasking – even in the newly announced iPhone OS 4 is limited

Security for the enterprise is a risk. Apple working hard to introduce new security features including mobile device management, mobile user management. Third party companies are building solutions for enterprise mobile security.

Over the Air (OTA) method of downloading enterprise applications not available. This means every enterprise user needs iTunes. This is becoming difficult for IT teams to manage and control. Apple has announced they will support Enterprise OTA soon.

In a way, this is a closed platform, as if you need to build applications to run on various mobile platforms, they have to be rewritten.

Operating System

Current Version. Android 2.1

Base Framework. Linux based kernel with Core services written in C, C++ and JAVA libraries. Runs on many processor architectures – ARM, MIPS, x86, Power.

Future Visibility. Android OS v2.2 has shown major performance breakthroughs. New devices from HTC and Motorola to be launched soon.

OS Efficiency. Very efficient. With v2.2 this is likely to become one of Android’s strongest points.

Device Management. No direct support for enterprise level device management. Support must be built in applications that run on it.

User Experience. Very user friendly. Support for Multi-touch gestures and Accelerometer, Magnetometer available. At par with iPhone, though iPhone is a shade better.

Web Browser. Based on WebKit, Supports HTML5, CSS3 Web fonts. One of Android’s strong points.

Storage. Supports external storage. Flash memory varies from model to model. SQLLite and native data storage mechanisms are available for applications.

Hardware Support. Video Camera, A-GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth. Accelerometer, Magnetometer and Multi-touch display with varying display sizes. Some features are device and manufacturer dependent.

Multi Tasking. Full multi-tasking applications can be written.

Media Support. Audio - 3GP, MP3, MP4, MIDI, Wave, Ogg. Video - H.263, H.264 AVC and MPEG4 SP. Flash 10.1 is planned in v2.2.

Development environment

Tools and Language. Eclipse IDE, JAVA.

SDK. Google offers Android SDK 2.1, 2.2 and NDK for developers to write applications. For graphics and rich user interface, OpenGL ES support is available from the SDK and some custom libraries. SDK offers variety of emulators for developers to test, debug and run the applications during development. In build Unit testing tools.

Application support

Android Market Place. Over 50,000 applications available. However compared to the app stores of other Mobile OS platforms, Android market place has a much higher % of free apps.

25% apps are free on the other app stores – apple, blackberry.

50% apps are free on the Android app store.

App Distribution. Available over the air via Android market place controlled by Google. Private OTA distribution is possible.

Enterprise Support. Limited device management capabilities. Supports VPN connections.

Consumer Support. Considerable amount of applications – 50000 - are available for users to download free or at nominal charge. Wide range of device options is available.

Devices available

Current. Droid, Hero, Nexus One, etc. About 20 devices worldwide.

Future. Multiple device options are to be available from number of manufacturers. This is one of Android’s biggest accelerators and something Apple will find hard to compete against.

Pros / Cons

Open Mobile OS platform, with lot of emerging features that are needed in today’s smart phone. Also enables various touch tone capabilities liked by people on iPhone.
More than 30 devices by various manufacturers.
Truly Multi-threaded, multi-processing OS. Developers can build lot of capabilities, not possible on the Apple iPhone platform.
The OS contains a lot of emulator UI skins that enables a developer to develop the application for one set of screen sizes and intensity, but easily make it available on other screen sizes, sharpness without any development. This is huge for both manufacturers and developers.
Lot of manufacturers including Dell is looking at building net-books / other mobile devices based on the Google Android platform. Not sure how this ties with the Google Chrome OS, also released.
Android Market is the second most popular application store with more than 50,000 applications available for download. 50% of these are free. On other app stores – Apple, Blackberry, about 25% are free.
The Android 2.2 OS is a state of the art mobile OS with features available on standard desktop OS and higher performance. More details available on http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2.html
Enterprise Security features and other needs for I/T organizations to include Google Android in the enterprise is taking time, as tools for the same are being developed. This adoption of Android by enterprises will increase over the next 12 to 18 months.
The biggest disadvantage of the Android OS is how they will continue to support the various OS / devices going into the future. Also the vision for Android vs. that of Google Chrome in other devices other than mobile phones is not clear.