WHAT EVERY IT MANAGER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

MOBILE APPSJonathan R. Engelsma, Ph.D.

Grand Valley State UniversitySchool of Computing

PADNOS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

• PCEC consists of:

• School of Computing

• School of Engineering

• 1530 students total

• Undergraduate and Graduate degree programs.

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CIS UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS• ABET Accredited

• Undergraduate Programs:

• Computer Science

• Information Systems

• 550 Students

• ~ 40 CS graduates annually

• ~ 40-50 IS graduates annually3

CIS GRADUATE PROGRAMS

• Graduate Programs

• Computer Information Systems

• Medical & Bio-Informatics

• ~ 80 students total

• ~30 MS graduates annually

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MOBILE APPS & SERVICES LAB • A multidisciplinary/collaborative

initiative hosted by the GVSU School of Computing

• Provides an environment that facilitates learning and discovery in the area of mobile technology.

• Emphasis on collaboration and “application research”.

More Info: http://masl.cis.gvsu.edu 5

TOPICS

• Overview / Motivation

• The native vs. web app question

• In-house vs. out-sourced development

• Hosting your mobile backend

• Engaging your audience

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MOBILE IS HUGE! •Trillion $$ Industries

•automotive

•food / clothing

•construction

•banking

•armaments

•mobileSource: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/all-the-numbers-all-the-facts-on-mobile-the-trillion-dollar-industry-why-is-google-saying-put-your-b.html

HOW BIG IS MOBILE?

•7B people on planet Earth

•4.2B people brush their teeth

•1.6B Television sets in use

•1.2B PCs in use

•1B automobiles registered and in operation

•> 6.8B mobile subscribers on planet Earth!!Source: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/all-the-numbers-all-the-facts-on-mobile-the-trillion-dollar-industry-why-is-google-saying-put-your-b.html

Source: http://www.chetansharma.com/MobilePredictions2012.htm

HOW BIG IS MOBILE?

•Skype: 124M monthly users (34% of international calls)

•Twitter Users: 550M (as of 5/2013)

•Facebook Users: 1.1B (as of 5/2013)

•4.2B people are active SMS users.

Source: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/all-the-numbers-all-the-facts-on-mobile-the-trillion-dollar-industry-why-is-google-saying-put-your-b.html

MOBILE DISPLACES THE PC

Source: http://www.androidauthority.com/pc-sales-decline-188736/

“THE DEVICE FORMALLY KNOWN AS THE CELL PHONE”

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The Present Reality: Smart Phones and tablets are rapidly becoming the primary terminal device end users

interact with, whether they be at work or play.

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TOPICS

• Overview / Motivation

• The native vs. web app question

• In-house vs. out-sourced development

• Hosting your mobile backend

• Engaging your audience

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NATIVE VS. WEB? • Web App Advantages

• one app runs everywhere

• easier to develop

• Web App Disadvantages

• inferior UI

• performs poorly offline

• discoverability14

NATIVE VS. WEB? • Native App Advantages

• Superior UI

• Preferred distribution model

• Remains reasonably functional offline offline

• Native App Disadvantages

• Need to implement/maintain separately on each platform.

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"The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML5 as opposed to native, it just wasn't

ready." - Mark Zuckerberg, September 2012

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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/html5-vs-native-apps-for-mobile-2013-4?op=1

APP DEVELOPMENT LANDSCAPE

Native Apps

Mobile Web Apps

“Hybrid” Apps

Android SDKiOS / xCodeVisual StudioWinPhone

HTML5

CSSJavascript

Sencha Touch

jQuery Mobile

NimbleKit

Titanium Mobile

Rhodes

Web app targeting handheld devices

Framework that generates nativecode and/or uses webviews in native.

Apps written for the native platform.

PhoneGap

GO NATIVE OR NOT??

• Gartner’s “Rule of Three”: use Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) when:

• there are 3 or more mobile applications

• there are 3 or more targeted operating systems or platforms

• they involve the integration of 3 or more back-end systems

SOME GUIDELINES • Economics are important, but be user centric (as budget

allows):

• If possible, go native for consumer or customer facing apps

• Hybrid / Web approach should be considered when you have a “captive audience”, e.g. employee-only app.

• Web vs. Hybrid: “app store” distribution is most familiar to end users today.

TOPICS

• Overview / Motivation

• The native vs. web app question

• In-house vs. out-sourced development

• Hosting your mobile backend

• Engaging your audience

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IN-HOUSE APP DEVELOPMENT • Developing apps in-house: What you’ll need...

• Time: All of the native platform SDK’s involve a considerable learning curve. (Est.3+ months to become productive)

• Money: Savvy iOS/Android developers are earning six digit salaries a year or two out of college.

• Strategy: Are your organization’s mobile apps to strategically important to leave to others?

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TOPICS

• Overview / Motivation

• The native vs. web app question

• In-house vs. out-sourced development

• Hosting your mobile backend

• Engaging your audience

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MOBILE BACKEND HOSTING

• Behind every interesting mobile app...

• a non-trivial set of database backed network-based services

• scaling agility

• could utilize your organization’s existing web infrastructure

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A NEW FORM OF CLOUD COMPUTING....

• IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and now MBaaS: Mobile Backend as a Service

• Leading contenders:

• Parse.com

• Kinvey.com

• www.stackmob.com

• Kii.com

• Google AppEngine (w/ client frameworks)

Cloud

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MBAAS: HOW IT WORKS

• MBaaS Concept:

• App agnostic cloud-based backend platform.

• Easy to program client side SDKs.

• Zero server-side programming required!

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MBAAS TRADEOFFS • MBaaS Advantages

• Minimal effort mobile backend

• All the typical benefits of cloud-based solutions.

• MBaaS Disadvantages

• Challenges integrating with existing backends.

• Entrusting a third party with your data.

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TOPICS

• Overview / Motivation

• The native vs. web app question

• In-house vs. out-sourced development

• Hosting your mobile backend

• Engaging your audience

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THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT...

Source: http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/how-many-apps-in-each-app-store/29

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT...

Attracting and sustaining user engagement is becoming increasingly difficult endeavor!

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IMPROVE YOUR APP STORE RANKINGS

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MOBILE GAMIFICATION

gamification: definition: the use of game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems

Source: http://www.wikipedia.org

Gamification is one technique being used to encourage sustained engagement.

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GAMIFICATION EXAMPLE

• How do you get people to annotate useful info while on the road?

• Waze: “social gps” turns it into a game with points/leaderboards.

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SUMMARY

• The mobile revolution is BIG, and is having a significant impact on how/when enterprise users access IT systems/services.

• Web vs. Native apps = “it depends”

• In-house app development involves a substantial commitment.

• End mobile users have a lot of options. Sustained end user engagement requires more effort and different approaches than traditional front-end systems.

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THANK YOU!!

• A copy of this presentation is available on slideshare.net:

• http://www.slideshare.net/jonathanengelsma

• Email: Jonathan.Engelsma@gvsu.edu

• Twitter: @batwingd

• Web: http://themobilemontage.com