In the Beginning

When handheld computers went mainstream, developers had only one choice: Palm Pilot. Within five years, they had Symbian and Pocket PC (later Windows Mobile) to consider also. By 2009, there were no less than eight major operating systems for smartphones: two versions of Windows Mobile, two versions for Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Symbian, and webOS, not to mention traditional feature phones running various flavors of Java.

The Impact

Developers were forced to make the tough choice of which operating system to develop for. Making it harder, customers were scattered and were requesting versions of a variety of platforms, with no one platform controlling the market, unlike the desktop world. Until a few months ago, they had only one choice: develop for each platform independently, picking and choosing which to support, each with huge costs and unknown payback.

That, however, is changing. Developers now have three ways to develop cross-platform. And while these technologies are still in their early days, they will evolve rapidly.

HTML 5 and the Mobile Web

One option is to forgo installed applications altogether and develop mobile Web applications. HTML 5, with its access to local databases, makes this possible. There are two major obstacles to this strategy right now: first, ubiquity of HTML 5-enabled browsers and, second, a willingness among customers to accept it as a standard.

While the first will be solved with time and pressure from other OS platforms, the second is a bigger problem. The customer's willingness to accept Web-based applications is a psychological change that takes years to evolve. Device owners have been trained that cell phone connections are inherently unstable. In many places the connection disappears, and until that is resolved this mental adjustment cannot begin to take hold.

Flash

Adobe recently announced its push into the mobile space, with Flash-enabled browsers for most platforms and a Flash-to-iPhone-app compiler for Apple's smartphones and handhelds. This would allow developers to write all of their apps in Flash and then deploy on multiple mobile browsers and the iPhone via a compiled application.

This still suffers from many of the same disadvantages of HTML 5, because it requires a psychological change in customers to accept running apps in the browser. In addition, Apple's hard-nosed stance against Flash in the browser will impede this movement because it will require two completely separate creation processes.

Finally, for Flash to take hold, operating system manufacturers will have to start treating Web-enabled applications the same as non-Web-enabled ones. For example, launching Web apps from the home page must become standard.

JavaScript Native Apps

A new class of applications has arisen. These are native applications that are compiled for a specific platform but that use Web technologies for the user interface. This has the most potential. The most prominent one currently is PhoneGap. Other solutions include Appcelerator and Rhomobile, which uses the Ruby on Rails Web development language.

These technologies, all open sourced, enable developers to write back-end processes in the native code and all of the user interfaces in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This application is then compiled into a native application. It can be uploaded to app stores, distributed via downloading and installed directly to the device.

The fundamental problem with mobile development isn't the back end, though. The backbone of all of these platforms is C or Java, which is generally portable if written with that intention. The problem is user interface development, which requires deep knowledge and understanding of each mobile device. Making the UI cross-platform solves the vast majority of problems associated with this kind of development. If you had to point to where the approach falls short, it would be that cross-platform applications don't feel "native," a shortcoming that would be solved by good design and better CSS work!

Conclusion

As the smartphone market evolves, we are unlikely to see a clear winner as we did in the PC business; and because of that, developers will be forced to write for multiple platforms. But for the first time in a decade, developers have options for multiple-device development. The cost and learning curve associated with writing native apps for every platform can finally be mitigated.

While all of these technologies are early to market, the writing is clearly on the wall. After more than a decade of discussion, the combination of Flash, HTML 5 and JavaScript will make "write once, use everywhere" a reality.

Guest author: Elia Freedman is the CEO of Infinity Softworks, the leading provider of software calculators, with over 15 million distributed. In its 13-year history, Infinity Softworks has developed applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows, Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Elia writes about tech, mobile and running a business on his blog, eliainsider.com.

In January, 20 million people were accessing Facebook on their mobile phones. By September, that number had more than tripled to a whopping 65 million mobile users. As the company continues to upgrade the mobile user experience, the rate of content generation appears poised for unlimited growth. To test the redesigned mobile site visit touch.facebook.com.

Senior Wired Magazine editor Robert Capps penned an article titled "The Good Enough Revolution" for Wired's September 2009 edition. The print edition included the daring (and perhaps intentionally provocative) subtitle "Why lo-fi tech will rule the world."

This rings of an absolutism, and such rings set off our antennae.

The best example, the Flip video, "nail(s) all three of those... traits." But not every product does. Take the computer market. Sure, netbooks sell like hotcakes while most of the rest of the market takes a beating. But there's a fly in the ointment: Apple.

Apple hasn't lowered its prices or jumped on the netbook bandwagon... yet (we'll keep our ears open for any announcements on that). Yet the company's fortunes continue to soar in the face of deplorable market conditions, which Capps asserts should make lo-fi tech spread faster.

New York Times columnist David Pogue gave a convincing talk on this subject, which he called "Simplicity Sells," and between rousing musical numbers he returned several times to the things Apple does right.

Pogue also mentioned a discussion he had with a "tap counter" while visiting a Palm facility in the 1990s. According to Pogue, this person counted taps for each feature that Palm put into its PDA. If a process took more than three taps, it had to be redesigned.

On this point, Pogue and Capps largely agree. Pogue, however, wisely sidesteps the land mines of "lo-fi," "price," and any other down-market connotation.

That's because "good enough" in technology means "accessible" and "easy to use." "Cheaper" is a nice bonus, but millions of people continue to prove that they will pay a higher initial cost to make sure that what they get is good enough. Capps stumbled only in neglecting this price-elasticity counter-argument.

Read his excellent article anyway (and check out David Pogue at TED) and get inspired. In any case, whatever you offer:

• Make it easy to use,
• Make it accessible,
• And above all, make sure it satisfies the needs of your clientele.

Do all of this, and higher prices might not bother potential customers as much as you fear.

Does this logic apply to your business? Let us know. We'd love to hear your opinion.

According to a post on Apple's website, the company is now claiming - for the record - that they will not guarantee other devices will sync with the iTunes software nor will they support those devices.

Here's how the post reads:

Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.

That sounds like a definite slap in the face to the Pre who may soon see one of their main selling points disappear with a simple update to the iTunes software.

Still, Apple has to be careful not to implement the update in a such way that makes it appear that they've done so just to break the Pre's syncing ability...that would reek of anti-competitiveness and could get them in trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice. However, we know Apple is filled with enough smart people that they could surely think of a way to break it without making it look like they broke it on purpose . The question is, will they really do something that under-handed and sneaky? Or do they just want to create a climate of fear by implying that you can't trust the Pre to always work?

Either way, it doesn't look like good news for Palm.

Free Updates, Just Like the iPhone

With subscription accounting, a company can use the revenue generated from the subscription service and spread it across the life of the service while revenue generated from the device is accounted for immediately. This allows a company to present a gradual increase in revenue as more devices are sold. The revenue generated from the subscription service can then be used for other things, and in Palm's case, those other things will be ongoing R&D efforts leading to improvements to the phone.

For Pre owners, this means they, like iPhone and iPhone 3G owners, can expect to receive free software updates for as long as they have the phone under contract. (This is also why iPod Touch owners have to pay for their updates.) In other words, whatever the Pre looks like upon launch, it's only going to get better.

Not Just One Handset: More WebOS Phones Coming

Another interesting note from these new documents is the fact that, when referring to these promised updates, Palm didn't just say they were for the Pre. Instead, the documents state that the free updates will be for "customers of its webOS products, including the recently announced Palm Pre."

That statement points towards Palm's intentions to build an entire product line built on the webOS - something that was basically confirmed Thursday when, on a conference call with analysts, Palm Chief Executive Edward Colligan promised that a road map of smartphones and an entire application ecosystem was in the company's future.

This is where Palm differs from Apple. Apple built one software base and installed it on one handset, albeit one that has seen hardware upgrades over time (i.e. iPhone to iPhone 3G). Palm, however, is envisioning a software product line that can extend itself across a variety of handsets. For customers, this means more choice when it comes to handsets. And for Palm, they hope this ecosystem will return the company to financial stability - just like they had back when Treos ruled.

If Palm fumbles in any way, it could be the end for their company. Let's hope that's not the case. Anticipation for the Pre is high - all Palm has to do is deliver.

The mobile version of Google Maps on the Pre only made a short appearance, and it didn't look like it really featured anything new, but the experimental version of Gmail looked very impressive. Besides adding support for labels, the most interesting new feature (if Google ever releases this version) was offline access. To make this work, Google makes use of the AppCache and client-side storage features in HTML5, both of which Safari on the iPhone fully supports. Gundotra also stressed how fast the app ran.

Hopefully, Google will ship this new mobile version of Gmail soon, as it looks to be a major update of the current Gmail web app. It will also be interesting to see if Google decides to use the same technology to bring offline access to Google Docs to mobile phones (and standard browsers) as well.

Gmail Demo on iPhone and HTC Magic

Video courtesy of AndroidCommunity.com

Google Maps on the Palm Pre

Video courtesy of PreCommunity.com

PdaNet is an application that allows you to use the internet connection via your smartphone to connect your computer to the internet. PdaNet is available for PalmOS, Windows Mobile, and the iPhone. PalmOS and Windows Mobile users are required to install the app on both their phone and their computer. Users will also need a USB cable or bluetooth to enable the connection to their computer. PdaNet is available for jailbroken iPhones via Cydia, which works without the need for cords. Instead PdaNet runs via a Wi-Fi ad-hoc network that the user must create for their iPhone.

The Best Back-Up to Have

In our tests, connection speeds were faster than a dial-up connection. If you're looking for optimal broadband speeds then your connection will depend entirely upon your service provider. On Verizon Wireless, we were able to watch Youtube videos and download a song or two within 2-3 minutes. On the AT&T network with no 3G connection, downloads and loading times were about 5-10 minutes for pages with videos or music. We were not able to test AT&T's 3G connection on our iPhone. PdaNet is available for free on the iPhone. PalmOS and Windows Mobile users will have to cough up $34 to use this app, though a trial version is available to download. Is it worth the money? We think so if you'll ever need to use your smartphone as a back-up internet connection.

German ISP T-Online demonstrated a big multi-touch screen right out of Minority Report at the CeBIT conference in Hannover this week (see this and other videos below). Many other designers are working on variations on that theme. Other designers still are aiming to bring game-like interfaces to other data-centric experiences. What would you like to see in interface design?

Video via a post at the wonderful design blog FreshCreation, the inspiration for this post.

The expectation that something like this will be the interface of the future is pretty widespread, but let's look at some alternatives.

Shadow Play

While that touchscreen looks very cool, it's got its issues too. The video below is from the University of British Columbia and points out some of those issues. I'm not sure if the shadow pointing option is going to work in very many circumstances outside of a classroom.

Via one of the researchers' comments at FreshCreation. See also this version at a home computer.

Just Like Your Real Life Mess

That last video might seem a bit dorky but at least you can imagine some good uses of such an approach. The other end of the spectrum, stunning but a challenge to imagine really using, is BumpTop - a prelaunched, much hyped 3D desktop thing.

Via Metafluence on Twitter

Thought Control

The keyboard and mouse may end up looking like sad relics from a time in history when only a fraction of human capacity to manipulate information was leveraged. Hopefully that won't mean internet brain implants, but for some people it probably will. The following video goes in the "no thanks" column for me. It's called Brainloop and it's from Austria.

Via FreshCreation again.

How About Something More Familiar

One of the reasons we're excited about the launch of Adobe's AIR platform and in Rich Internet Applications in general is their potential for powerful, beautiful new interfaces. It's a lot more accessible for larger numbers of developers than any of the above ever will be. Innovation on AIR in new Twitter clients alone is a fun field to watch.

AIR, Flex and the forthcoming Thermo join Photoshop to make up the newest suite of Adobe tools for interface design. Check out the following video demonstration of the AIR and Flex at work on a Sony Ericsson website. The demo is from Raghunath Rao of Adobe in Bangalore, India.

Throw that onto a touchscreen interface, make it all bigger, and then we're really talking.

2D/3D Gaming

You know what I really want? I want a web experience like the soon-to-launch game Fez. Check out this video, it gets particularly interesting at :30.

Via gaming megablog Kotaku

I want my RSS reader to work like that. Combine some hand motion/touchscreen with some AIR/Flex/Thermo action with some 2D/3D viewing of related documents and I'm going to be in heaven. Make that song in the Fez demo play all the time, too.

Conclusion

Always-on access, the proliferation of publishers, content syndication and an inevitable shift in advertising dollars are all forces contributing to a growing demand for better interfaces. The iPhone's multi-touch interface is also moving things heavily in that direction, which may or may not be good for the web at large.

Other efforts to tackle the same problems include better filtering systems or recommendation engines. Those will make some sense in some cases but day in and day out, we need new interfaces to deal with the explosion of information underway. How do you want to interact with a world drowning in data?

(Maybe all of this is silly and the image below is all we need to know!)

via >> via >> via >> via

* No, we are not ceding the browser game to Firefox
* Hey, we are cool again
* No, we won’t let Amazon AWS be the de facto choice for start-up hosting

Maybe Sergey Brin was right to be unnerved.

The Microsoft vs Google slugfest is one of the better spectator sports around. It is like Sumo wrestling, but then some smaller guys like Yahoo, AOL, Amazon, Ask occasionally jump in the ring saying “hey, look at me, I am big too”. Whack. Oops, the big sumo boys did not mean to hurt you. As with any good match, we have passionate supporters on both sides and lots of really heavy betting action.

What’s been missing recently is the big moves by Microsoft. Bill Gates was pretty deliberate about his succession. First he hands over the biz stuff to Ballmer; squeeze every last drop out of that cash cow please. Then he brought in Ray Ozzie, his cerebral equal and somebody the developers can relate to.

With no big moves, I wondered if Ozzie was being shackled by the Innovators Dilemma and could not move fast enough to meet the emerging battle for the big cloud services.

However these latest moves indicate that Microsoft is thinking and not just roaring. There were also some quiet 'below the radar' deals last week, that were pretty significant if you look at where they could go. Acquiring Credentica is a big move in the online ID game and that is a big game that still needs leadership.

So I decided to research what Microsoft has acquired recently. Somebody has already done the hard work and put it onto Wikipedia. I don’t know if it is accurate; if you see any big gaps, you can go edit the Wikipedia entry (as well as commenting here of course). The number of acquisitions tells a story of a pretty hungry beast:

2000 - 7

2001 - 4

2002 - 4

2003 - 4

2004 - 4

2005 - 14 (including Groove, which brought in Ray Ozzie)

2006 - 19

2007 - 15

2008 - 5 (up to Feb 27th, does not have Credentica)

Many of these deals are quite small by Microsoft standards. They are buying R&D. It clearly takes them a long time to take cool R&D and scale it to the level that is needed to be meaningful for Microsoft. That is good news for start-ups looking to exit. When the big guys need every ounce of competitive advantage for their fights, small guys can benefit.

Image credit: mrcbrown