Introduction to Mobile Web Applications

Manoj Kumar SarmaAssistant ProfessorDept. of Computer Science & EngineeringRoyal School of Engineering & Technology, Guwahati-35

Types of Mobile DevicesHandheld devices/TabletsHandheld computersPersonal Digital AssistantsPalmtopsSmartphones

Pocket PC Phone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Modern_Pocket_PC.png

Blackberry Storm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackberry_Storm.JPG http://www.mobileafrica.net/images/apple-iphone.jpg

iPhone

Archos 5 Internet Tablet

http://techplore.com/technology/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/archos-5-internet-tablet_1.jpg http://homebiss.blogspot.com/2009/11/motorola-droid-iphone-3gs.html

Motorola DROID

http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_nexus_one

Google Nexus One

• Retail: $530• Not tied to single provider• 3.7-inch 800 x 400-pixel OLED screen• No support for multitouch• 512 MB of built-in flash memory •Preloaded 4 GB SD card•Ubiquitous voice recognition• 5-megapixel camera with zoom and flash• Navigation system using Google Maps and GPS

HCL ME Tablet

Sony Tablet

Mobile Devices – The GoodAlways with the userTypically GPS capableTypically have accelerometerMany apps are free or low-cost

Mobile Devices – The Not-So-GoodLimited screen size and colorsLimited battery lifeLimited processor speedLimited and slow network accessLimited or awkward input: soft

keyboard, phone keypad, touch screen, or stylus

Limited web browser functionalityOften inconsistent platforms across

devices

Mobile ApplicationsWhat are they?

◦Any application that runs on a mobile device

Types◦Web apps: run in a web browser

HTML, JavaScript, Flash, server-side components, etc.

◦Native: compiled binaries for the device

Native App Development EnvironmentsJava ME .NET Compact Framework (C++, C#,

VB.NET) for Windows MobileQualcomm’s BREW (C or C++)Symbian (C++)BlackBerry (Java)Android (Java)iPhone (Objective-C)Is having so many choices a good

thing?

Development EnvironmentsMost platforms have an SDK that

you can download and build against

Every platform has an emulator that you can use to test your apps

Most emulators are configurable to match a variety of mobile devices◦Various screen sizes, memory

limitations, etc.

xCode IDE & iPhone Emulator

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/Creating_an_iPhone_App/index.html

Eclipse and Android Emulator