Nowadays, we read a lot about the promises of emerging mobile technologies especially for developing countries. What do you think are the more realistic mobile applications and challenges?
I think the goal is not just about connecting people with internet or mobile or anything else but it is to provide services like banking, education, commerce so that it improves the quality of life of people. Currently, as the technology and infrastructure stand, the best way to provide e-services is on mobile phones. India has emerged as the world's large mobile market. We are selling around 6 million handsets a year. Next year, it is likely to increase to 8 million. Hence, people have access to mobile phones. We need to focus on providing mobile-services on mobile phones via SMS-based applications. Everybody knows how to send an SMS. Operators do not charge for receiving messages and charge very less for sending a message. SMS is available and enabled on all phones.
As for challenges, it is user interfaces and low capabilities of mobile handsets. Today, you can have text-only, limited size, basic services like single query answers. There are also some interoperability problems between operators. There are no web browser on low-end phones. Some of older phones have WAP browsers, and when available, it is used, but there is a lack of WAP content.
On usability front, I would say that internationalization and localization of content is very important. Users should be able to enter data and view content in local languages.
As you have said, it requires major improvements in providing latest features in handsets, creating mobile content, etc.What type of technological and service level changes are required for speedy adoption of mobile-services?
We must explore how lightweight mobile browsers could fit on low-end phones. These could be text-browsers like at the early age of the web, or similar products.
It is important that operators introduce affordable flat-rates plans for data services. I think this would be a key factor for quicker adoption of mobile-services. There should not be any element of unpredictability of the cost of data services. Unless they know how much they will be charged, people will be scared to use web browsers on mobile phones.
As such, lack of skilled resources seems to emerge as a perennial problem for software companies. What is the status of human resource supply for mobile applications development?
Even though there are lots of mobile phones compared to the number of PCs, it is very rare to see mobile application development courses in our colleges and universities. Developing such courses would be a key factor to enable local people to develop applications fitting the needs of the country.
I say that there must be mobile development courses because creation of mobie applications requires a set of skills that are not commonly found among PC application developers. The PC application developers simply are not familiar with the unique requirements posed by the mobile nature of many wireless devices. These requirements exist whether the developer is dealing with a cell phone, PDA, or other handheld device.
Compared to the desktop-computing environment, one of the biggest differences in creating applications for mobile wireless devices is the introduction of resource constraints. Inexperienced developers often struggle with optimizing their code size to deal with constraints like limited memory size.
Hence, our colleges must evolve and introduce special courses for imparting mobile application development skills.
What are the challenges that are unique to mobile applications development?
Porting applications across multiple handsets with different screen sizes, keypad types, and processor types is a major challenge. At Vishwak, we have created a mobility lab that is solely dedicated to profiling mobile devices. We are engaged in research as to how to effectively port programs across numerous carriers and multiple handsets. Generally, it leads to 40 or 50 variations of the application that must be ported.
Many interactive wireless-handset applications, such as those for entertainment or office productivity, require a robust server-side component. Yet many companies lack the required infrastructure background, application-provisioning software, and access to messaging gateways that are needed for successful interactive programs.
Further, development cycles for handset applications are perhaps the shortest of any mobile wireless device. New handsets are introduced to the market every three to six months. It's therefore very difficult for developers to gain early access to handsets for testing purposes.
What are the major security challenges in mobile applications and usage?
Wireless transmission, in a way, biases end-users to perceive mobile applications to be more vulnerable and unsecured. Thus, more security enhancements and options must be provided to ensure the security of data and business transactions.
There are inherent security challenges of a mobile device. Chief among these limitations is the power-sensitive nature of most handsets. In addition, position-aware applications represent a growing market for wireless developers. Yet they are fraught with security issues. You can now track the location of mobile phones in real time.
Application developers must be sensitive to the privacy needs of potential users.
Power isn't just a concern for security functions. It affects all mobile wireless applications. The ever-increasing feature sets of today's handsets make power consumption and heat dissipation major concerns. Many traditionally power-hungry applications, such as still cameras, motion videos, and games, must be redesigned
for the power-budget constraints of mobile handsets.
The successful applications are those that have been thoroughly tested. Software developers often use traditional tools like simulators and emulators. But the final test must be performed on the actual device across an active wireless network.
A critical factor for the commercial success of mobile and task-specific devices is the fast turnaround time of software development. However, developing software for mobile devices is especially hard since applications need to be aware of and adapt to changing resources such as bandwidth and battery.
What are the limiting factors that come in way of expanding mobile applications usage?
The technical restrictions do pose a challenge for the wide diffusion of mobile applications. Low bandwidth, unstable connection, and limited coverage area are the main drawbacks of current mobile technology and services.
Since mobile devices are power-hungry at present, the fundamental need is to continue to improve both power-to-weight and absolute capacity, as well as lower recharge times.