4. Defrag the OS
Possibly the biggest challenge the mobile sector faces in the apps space is that the current OS-driven model being championed by vendors is already threatening to refragment the mobile content market after years of work by standards bodies like the Open Mobile Alliance to bridge proprietary handset UI specs.
And that’s putting more pressure on developers who now face “huge issues of overhead costs and complexity”, said Simon Nicholson, director of mobile operator marketing and Java software at Sun Microsystems.
Nicholson recommended a warehouse model that “gives the developer a single entry point into the supply chain” and can also handle things like contacts and settlements.
Karl-Johan Dahlström, product manager of content planning and application acquisition at Sony Ericsson (whose PlayNow is actually an app store, it turns out) said that the mobile device sector needed to move away from tying apps directly to the OS and “look to the runtimes, virtual machines, widgets and other enablers on top of the OS to help apps go cross-platform, which will make things a lot easier for developers.”
5. Aim for the clouds
Ironically, that complexity is also a major factor driving interest in a cloud-based approach to mobile apps. Scott Seaborn, head of mobile technologies at OgilvyOne, pointed out that mobile ads and marketing campaigns have to work on all handsets.
“We use these applets that are really hyperlinks that punch through into the cloud and everything works there,” he said. “So I’m going to work in the cloud as much as my clients will let me.”