Cross-platform apps are the only way forward
I've been writing about operator cross-network aps for a while, decoupling access from service. We need to see Vodafone 360 on AT&T handsets, and O2/Jajah VoIP on Hutchison 3 phones. It's the only way to build scale against the real Internet application players.But thinking further, and especially in the light of yesterday's announcement by Nokia about free turn-by-turn navigation, there also needs to be cross-phone applications.
Google has a head start here, with its portfolio of apps available on most devices, not just Android. To compete, Nokia has to follow suit - if it's serious about apps, it cannot just confine them to its own hardware platforms, it needs to port them to Android, iPhone, RIM and so on. Maybe, ultimately even Apple's iron will should crumble, and it should export aspects of its flagship UI to other OS platforms (although I'm not betting on it).
Some of the Nokia apps are really good - the SMS client, for example. Some of the SonyEricsson and Samsung ones too. But if I don't want a Nokia or an S-E phone for any reason, why can't I still have that experience, as long as the hardware supports it?
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Posted 21 Jan 2010
Last edited 22 Jan 2010
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1. At 22 Jan 2010 23:16, App-etizer « Digital*Media*Convergence*Change*Web*2.0*Broadcast*Global linked here:
...pplication Store (Samsung), Apps Catalog (Palm) are all in the game. And this is just for the hand held segment.Cross platform applications strategies will be essential....
2. At 25 Jan 2010 22:33, Ade Bamigboye wrote:
In the medium term, the range of mobile devices will continue to proliferate. Throw in tablets and other SIM enabled devices and the combination of hardware, operating systems and hardware drivers becomes combinatorially explosive.
It is difficult to see how cross-platform apps will ever be anything other that an aspiration. The rate at which products are being developed and released to consumers’ means that cross-platform app developers will have to update them at an impractical rate. The knock-on effect on app-store approval times and third-party developers becomes enormous.
Google are very much focused on HTML5 as the ultimate common factor across all handsets and in this regard, cross-platform commonality will occur on mobile internet before it does apps.
commonality will occur on mobile internet before it does apps.