1 taxonomy of mobile applications nimrat randhawa, jiwan bhandari, manju palathingal october 27,2015

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TAXONOMY OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Nimrat Randhawa, Jiwan Bhandari, Manju Palathingal

October 27,2015

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CONTENTS● History of mobile applications

● Types of mobile applications

● Taxonomy of mobile applications

● Candidate dimension of mobile application

taxonomy

● Categorization of sample mobile applications

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What is Mobile Application?

•A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer.

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History of Mobile applications

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It all Started..

Computers in 1950s

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Then..

Desktops

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Then...

Laptops

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And Now

Smart Devices

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Remember The Brick?

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

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Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

It was the first commercially available cell phone.

First marketed in 1983.

Retailed for $3,995, plus hefty monthly service fee and per-minute charges.

It made calls and there was a simple contacts application included in the operating system.

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The First Apps

•Manufacturers didn’t want to expose the secrets of their handsets

•So they developed the phone software in-house.

•Developers who weren’t part of this inner circle had no opportunity to write applications for the phones.

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The First Apps..

•It was during this period the first “time-waster” games begin to appear.

•Snake, Pong, Tetris, and Tic-Tac-Toe, etc.

•These early phones changed the way people thought about communication.

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The First Apps...

•As Customers began pushing for more features and more games.

•What better way to provide these services than the Internet?

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The Problem

•By the late 90s, professional Web sites were full color and loaded with text, images, and other types of media.

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The Problem..

•Early phones had very small monochrome low-res screens, limited storage and processing power.

•They couldn’t handle the data-intensive operations required by traditional Web browsers.

•Even data transmission was costly to the user.

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The Solution

• WAP - Wireless Application Protocol.

• A stripped-down version of HTTP, which is the basic protocol of World Wide Web.

• WAP browsers were designed to run within the memory and bandwidth constraints of the phone.

• Third-party WAP sites served up pages written in a markup language called Wireless Markup Language (WML).

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WAP

• Handset manufacturers could write one WAP browser to ship with the handset and rely on developers to come up with the content users wanted.

• Mobile operators could provide a custom WAP portal directing their subscribers to the content they wanted to provide, and wallow in the high data charges associated with browsing.

• Users were happy as they could customize their phones for first time.

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Problems With WAP

• WAP browsers were slow and frustrating.• Typing in long URLs with the numeric keypad

was a tremendous pain.• Most WAP sites were one version and did not

account for individual phone specifications.• The developer couldn’t tailor the user’s

experience. The result was a mediocre and not very compelling experience for everyone involved.

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The Transition

• Memory was getting cheaper and batteries were getting better.

• The traditional desktop application developer was suddenly involved in the embedded device market, especially with Smartphone technologies like Windows Mobile, which they found familiar.

• Handset manufacturers realized that if they wanted to continue to sell their products, they needed to change their protectionist policies regarding handset design and expose their internal workings to some extent.

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Transition...

• A variety of different proprietary platforms

emerged and developers are still actively

creating applications for them.

• One of the first was the Palm OS (now Garnet

OS) and RIM Blackberry OS.

• Sun Microsystems popular Java platform became

Java Micro Edition (Java ME).

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• Symbian OS was developed by Nokia and

became very popular.

• The Apple iPhone iOS joined the ranks in 2007

and redefined the mobile application

parameters.

• Google’s Android came along a year later and

possess good share of mobile application

market.

Transition...

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Types of Mobile Apps

•Native Apps

•Web Apps

•Hybrid Apps

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Native Apps

•Developed for use on a particular platform or device.

•E.g: Messages, Notes, etc.

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•Advantages:

–Possess user rich interface and high graphics.

–Possess full access to the device.

•Disadvantages:

–Large development time and cost.

–Need good maintenance

–No portability

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Web Apps

•Apps stored on remote server and delivered over internet through a browser.

•E.g: Social Networking sites, Instant Messengers, etc.

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•Advantages:

–Offer fast development.

–Easy maintenance.

–Full application portability.

•Disadvantages:

–Can’t handle heavy graphics.

–Can’t have full access to the device

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Hybrid App

•Those apps which need internet to function.

•E.g: Health app in iOS, various games, etc

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•Advantages:

–Possess development speed of mobile web apps

–Also possess app store distribution of native apps

•Disadvantages:

–Can’t handle heavy graphics.

–Requires familiarity with a mobile framework

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TAXONOMY OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS

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This taxonomy is based on the following paper:

Towards a Taxonomy of Mobile Applications [1]

Written by:

Robert Nickerson (San Francisco State University)

Upkar Varshney (Georgia State University)

Jan Muntermann (J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt)

Henri Isaac Paris (Dauphine University)

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Proposed taxonomy

• Dimensions based on interaction between user

and the mobile applications

• Characteristics of categories within each

dimension

- Collectively exhaustive

- Mutually exclusive

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Characteristics of taxonomy

Concise

Extendible

Inclusive

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CANDIDATE DIMENSION OF

MOBILE APPLICATION TAXONOMY

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Temporal Dimension

• Based on real time or non-real time interaction of users

Categories

• Synchronous: user and application interact in real time

• Asynchronous: user and application interact in non-real time

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Communication Dimension

• Based on which way information

flows between the user and the application.

Categories

• Informational: Information flows only from

the mobile application to the user

- uni-directional information flow to the

user

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• Reporting: Information flows only from the user

to the mobile application

- uni-directional flow from the user

• Interactional: Information flows in both

directions between the user and the mobile

application

- bi-directional flow between user and

application

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Transaction dimension

• Based on presence or absence

of financial transaction

Categories

• Transactional: user can purchase goods or

services through the application

• Non-transactional: user cannot purchase goods

and services through the application

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Public dimension

• Based on availability of mobile applications

Categories

• Public: application can be used by any user

• Private: application can only be used by a pre-

selected group of users.

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Multiplicity(or participation) dimension

• Based on number of users using the application

simultaneously

Categories

• Individual: one user

• Group: multiple users

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Location Dimension

• Deals with whether the location

of the user is used to modify the application.

Categories

• Location-based: mobile application uses the

user’s location

• Non-location-based: mobile application does

not use the user’s location

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Identity Dimension

• Based on whether the identity of the

user is used to modify the application

Categories

• Identity-based: mobile application uses the

user’s identity

• Non-identity-based: mobile application does

not use the user’s identity

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Categorization of Sample Mobile Applications [1]:

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Mobile Voice Communications (Skype)

Temporal : Synchronous

Communication : Interactional

Transaction : Transactional

Access : Public

Multiplicity : Individual

Location : Non - location based

Identity : Identity based

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Location Based Contents and Services : (Yelp)


Communication : Informational

Transaction : Non-transactional

Access : Public


Location : Location based


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Mobile inventory management: (mSupply)

Temporal : Asynchronous



Access : private


Location : Non location based


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Mobile games: (Wizard war)




Access : Public

Multiplicity : Group

Location : Non-location based


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Financial services (mobile banking) BOA App




Access : Public




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Mobile entertainment services (NETFLIX)(stored contents, contents-on-demand, live events):




Access : Public




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Mobile product recommendation systems (Amazon mobile app.)

Temporal : Asynchronous



Access : Public




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Mobile Social Networking (Instagram)




Access : Public




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Navigation: (Google maps)




Access : Public



Identity : Non-Identity based

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Mobile Telemedicine (Doctor on Demand)




Access : public




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Questions ??

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References:

[1] Nickerson, Robert; Varshney, Upkar; Muntermann, Jan; and Isaac, Henri, "Towards a Taxonomy of Mobile Applications" (2007). AMCIS 2007 Proceedings. Paper 338.http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2007/338

http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2007/338

1 taxonomy of mobile applications nimrat randhawa, jiwan bhandari, manju palathingal october 27,2015

Documents

mobile device

mobile operators

windows mobile

wap sites

type of application

simple contacts application

early phones

content users