Software

There has been much to do about mobile software this week.  Is writing a native application worth the bother?

The article, “Mobile Applications, RIP”, posted to the Mobile Opportunity blog earlier this week has really gotten me thinking about the native applications we use on our mobile devices.

Mr. Mace summarizes his article by writing: “The business of making native apps for mobile devices is dying, crushed by a fragmented market and restrictive business practices. The problems are so bad that the mobile web, despite its many technical drawbacks, is now a better way to deliver new functionality to mobiles. I think this will drive a rapid rise in mobile web development, largely replacing the mobile app business. This has huge implications for mobile operators, handset companies, developers, and users.”

I’ll agree that too much control now lies in hands of the wireless network carries for my comfort.  Their attitude of “our way or no way” is, at a consumer level, worrisome.  I also would agree that there are a number of popular mobile platforms available today, and no one platform has the ability to dominate the others.  The lack of clear mobile platform leaders forces software developers to hedge their bets when starting up new development projects.

There are two recent examples we can look at.  In Mr. Mace’s article, he talks about Elia Freedman, the CEO of Infinity Softworks; a developer of vertical market software.  In the article, Mace laments the passing of Mr. Freedman’s software development business.  The second is the shuttering of PDA Performance, the developers of the Palm OS widget application LineUp.  (The company’s other product, Saguaro, to the best of my knowledge was not completed before closing their virtual doors.)

Both Infinity Softworks and PDA Performance site the decline of third-party application sales as a major contributing factor to their decision to close up shop.  It all comes down to dollars, and in the end, neither company was making enough to keep their companies viable. The decline of the Palm OS platform has, at least indirectly, been sited as a contributing factor in the decision to close down.

Let’s face it, when you get right down to it, there have been no significant changes to the Palm OS in the last five years.  For the most part, Palm OS 5.4.9 is virtually the same as Palm OS 5.0.  The only changes that have been made have been minor incremental changes to support the new tweaks to the Palm hardware.  As a result, much of the enthusiasm around Palm OS has dissipated.  That isn’t to say that Palm OS solutions aren’t usable, there just hasn’t been much to get excited about.  And the lack of enthusiasm seems to have translated into lower sales for third-party developers.  The level of enthusiasm around a device ebbs and flows with the release of the next cool thing.  Right now, that cool thing is the iPhone.  Look at all the effort being put into hacking the software stack to allow the use of new software.  In the late 1990s, that same level of enthusiasm existed around the Palm OS.

The enthusiasm around a platform is only part of the problem.  There is another problem facing mobile software developers.  This problem is most visible in the smartphone market: the controlling of what software can be installed on your phone.

In this regard, the Palm OS and Windows Mobile are some of the most open platforms around because of the rich software libraries that were created before the race to release nothing but smartphones.  On my Treo 755p smartphone, when I download an application OTA, I get a warning stating that the download is not coming from my wireless carrier and whether or not I still want to continue to download the file.  I know that there will be no compatibility issues between the software, my device, and the carrier’s network because I’m dealing with a reputable software developer with whom I’ve done business with before.  So why the warning each time I download an application?  The answer comes down to money.  I’m not buying the software from my carrier and they aren’t getting a cut of the profit from my purchase.

AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon aren’t the only companies trying to control what software gets loaded on your smartphone.  Apple, apparently, will also be getting in on the act.  According to the leaks appearing on the Internet around next week’s release of the beta version of the iPhone/iPod SDK, Apple will be acting as a gatekeeper for what software can be installed on their devices.  If Apple gives a developer that thumbs down, their software isn’t getting on your device.  (And that brings us back to the enthusiastic developers and customers; they will find new ways to hack into the iPhone as they have always done.)

With carriers and handset makers trying to control all of the aspects of mobiles (contract terms, device selection, pricing, and software selection) are mobile web applications poised to become the norm as Mr. Mace suggests?  I don’t think so.  If my experience with Opera mini has been a glimpse into the future, I’m not interested.  It has been my impression that Java still has too many variants floating around: Java for the desktop; Java for mobile devices; and Java for feature phones.  If developers think that it is difficult to focus their development efforts now, mobile web applications based on Java will be just as difficult.  Opera mini renders pages well enough, but I found the control of the browser to be a bit disjointed.  In the early beta releases that I used, you had to use buttons on the screen to call up menus rather than using the menu button on the Treo keyboard, for example.  I felt that there was a disconnect between the software and the hardware that came from trying to make one application work on multiple platforms.

In the end, I believe that carriers are going to try to tighten their grip on software sales and distribution.  Apple is the latest mobile hardware company that will attempt to control what goes on their device.  In the past, Tapwave tried controlling software this way (application signing anyone?) and it hurt software sales.  There are some interesting web applications out there.  Google Docs is an interesting example of a good web application that I’ve used to share podcast show notes during panel shows.  I agree that web applications have a place.

Personally, I feel that you can achieve a better user experience with a native application.  That is why Apple rewrote the Google Maps application for the iPhone.  However, if a third-party developer is unable to secure good distribution and marketing channels, we are going to be reading about more application developers closing their doors.

What do you think?  Are web applications just as good as native applications?  Can developers continue to go it alone or will they have to bend to wishes of carriers, handset makers, or larger distribution houses?  Let us know in the 1SRC discussion forums by clicking the link below.