Will Couchbase Power Future Mobile App Development?

Couchbase may have an ace in the hole when it comes to giving mobile developers the tools that they need to build apps that rock.

This morning the software provider that sells commercial packages around Open Source Couchbase Server brings Couchbase Mobile to market. It includes mobile data synchronization and what the company’s Chief Mobile Architect, Wayne Carter, calls the world’s first and only native NoSQL mobile database.

It’s an important innovation that comes at exactly the right time — as mobile becomes the new major touch point.

Apps Shouldn’t Rely on the Network for Delight

Up until now building mobile apps that rely on remote data has been a point of frustration because there are some things that developers cannot control.

“If the network is fast, the app is fast. If the network is slow, the app is slow,” explains Carter.

Needless to say, this results in an inconsistent — and sometimes horrific — user experience.

Developers who tried to address the problem a few years ago found four primary stumbling blocks: device storage limits, device compute, expense and level of difficulty.

Because of innovations on devices themselves, only expense and level of difficulty remain.

Couchbase has taken it upon itself to help mobile developers clear the remaining hurdles so that they can build apps that are not as severely strained by network availability.

An End to Headaches Caused by Network Strain

As Carter and his team began looking for ways to help developers build “always available, always responsive” apps, it was obvious that relying primarily on remote data in the cloud wasn’t a solution (consider if a network was down between you and your data — you’d have nothing). Neither was relying solely on local data in an embedded NoSQL database on a mobile device.

What was needed, and what Couchbase designed, is an entirely new mobile platform, appropriately named Couchbase Mobile. It consists of three component: Couchbase Lite, Couchbase Sync Gateway and Couchbase Server. Couchbase Lite’s NoSQL database sits on your mobile device (lightweight, embedded JSON database), Couchbase Server sits in the Cloud (high performance, always on, JSON database) and Couchbase Sync manages data synchronization.

Taken together, these products provide mobile application developers a powerful new platform for simplifying app development, exponentially reducing the code needed to manage data synchronization, and enabling much faster time to market.

You Can Do Mobile the Way Facebook Does

“This is similar to how Facebook does it,” says Rahim Yaseen, Couchbase’s senior vice president of product development. But, of course, few in the world have such large, talented engineering teams.

“Now (with Couchbase Mobile), anyone can do it,” adds Yaseen.

And though the product hasn’t been general available until today, the companies Couchbase pre-released it to are doing some interesting things.

Infinite Campus, for example, which provides educational solutions for more than 2,000 school districts, uses it for collaboration and learning. With Couchbase Mobile, teachers can push out assignments, reading and classroom materials to students via the web, which they can use to complete assignments while they are offline at home. There are no uploads or downloads required, everything a student needs is simply just there.

Developers Deliver Delight with Couchbase Mobile

The user experience is key when it comes to building and delivering mobile apps. Even small delays cause tremendous anxiety and frustration among consumers. Delivering delight is what’s expected and, provided that Couchbase Mobile works as presented, it’s a significant advance.

Publisher: Mobile - Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Mobile App Usage Increases In 2014, As Mobile Web Surfing Declines

New data from app analytic provider Flurry released today states that native app usage on smartphones is continuing to grow at the expense of the mobile web. The company claims that users are now spending 2 hours and 42 minutes per day on mobile devices as of March 2014, up from 2 hours, 38 minutes as of a year ago. Meanwhile, mobile app usage accounts for 2 hours and 19 minutes of that time spent, while mobile web usage has dropped from 20% of the U.S. consumer’s time in 2013 to just 14% – or 22 minutes per day – as of last month. Says Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf, the changes indicate that the mobile browser has become just “a single application swimming in a sea of apps.”

Flurry, which gathers its data from its network of over 450,000 mobile applications installed on over 1.3 billion devices worldwide, clarified to us that it also uses comScore to determine its figures on mobile browser usage and mobile applications. Meanwhile, it uses NetMarketShare for the distribution of the browser usage. In other words, be aware that company is combining data from different sources with different methodologies here, so take that as you may.

In the new report, Flurry also examined which app categories remained most popular year-over-year, and found that gaming still dominates mobile usage with 32% of time spent on iOS and Android devices (same as last year), while Facebook remained a strong second with 17% of time spent on mobile.

However, it’s interesting to note that Facebook exhibited a slight decline year-over-year, going from 18% of time spent in 2013 to the 17% now reported, (which includes Instagram), says Flurry. Though it’s still a lead by a wide margin in terms of time spent, even that slight decline can help explain why Facebook would spend big to expand its user base and market share elsewhere on mobile, the way it did via the WhatsApp acquisition.

Facebook, combined with Twitter (1.5%) and Social Messaging apps (9.5%) grew to 28% of time spent on mobile, up from 24% last year, indicating the broader shift from socializing on Facebook to sharing within smaller, more private messaging applications.

Meanwhile, new social category YouTube accounted for 4% of time spent. Entertainment (including YouTube) and Utility apps saw their shares remain the same at 8% each, year-over-year, while productivity apps doubled their share from 2% to 4%.

Flurry also notes that, combined, Google and Facebook likely command less than 25% of the total time the average U.S. consumer spends on mobile, while the top ten franchises according to comScore, account for less than 40% of the time spent.

Says Khalaf, “despite massive efforts by Google and Facebook, the market hasn’t consolidated and over the past couple of years, we have seen new franchises emerge in almost every sector of mobile.” These include apps like Pinterest, Snapchat, WhatsApp (acquired by Facebook), Waze (acquired by Google), Spotify and more, which on their own account for a percentage or two of the time spent on mobile.

In terms of apps that lost share from 2013 to 2014, the most notable example is Safari, which dropped from 12% to 5%. Non-Google, non-Apple browser dropped from 4% to 2%. Also on the decline was the “Other” category of apps, which went from 6% to 3% – but as a grouping of all the leftovers that didn’t fit into one of the main categories cited here, that doesn’t mean as much.

Also worth noting, time spent in native apps, 2 hours and 19 minutes this year is only up 12 minutes per day (or 9.5%) from last year – an increase that’s not as notable as the previous five years, the report found, which seems to point to a sort of leveling off in terms of how much time users have to spend on devices, and in apps.

Finally, Flurry reviewed mobile advertising, citing data from eMarketer that said Facebook earned 17.5% of the overall mobile ad revenues, which is in line with their share of time spent on mobile, while Google (including YouTube) earned 49.3%, or much more than their time spent. Non-Google, non-Facebook apps accounted for 65.3% of time spent but only saw 32% of ad revenues.

Publisher: Mobile - Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Web Mobile Apps Vs Native Apps, which one you would prefer ?

Mobile applications come in two distinct formats: native apps and web apps. Due to differences in their underlying technology, 

Each approach has inherent advantages and drawbacks.  

Mobile Web Apps:

A mobile web app is a web application formatted for smartphones and  tablets, and accessed through the mobile device’s web browser. Like a traditional web application, a mobile web app is built with three core technologies: HTML (defines static text and images), CSS (defines style andpresentation), and JavaScript (defines interactions and animations). .Since web apps are browser-based, they’re intended to be platform and device independent, able to run on any web-enabled smartphone or tablet. A mobile web app is normally downloaded from a central web server each time it is run, although apps built using HTML5 (described below) can also run on the mobile device for offline use.

Advantages:

1) The key advantage of mobile web apps over native mobile apps is cross-platform compatibility, allowing them to reachthe broadest audience for the least effort. They’re relatively cheap, easy, and fast to build, although some device-specific customization is usually required. Mobile web browsers are fairly standardized, making it much easier to create a universal mobile web app than a native one.

2) Web apps are also cheaper and easier to maintain than native apps for the same reasons, using cross-platform applets rather than keeping up with changes across different devices.  

3) Simple, ubiquitous access: Users don’t have to download an application, but simply access a URL via their mobile browser which instantly delivers the most up-to-date application to their device. They can then bookmark the URL for repeat use.

Disadvantages:

1) Although improvements are ongoing, mobile browsers have limited capabilities compared to traditional desktop browsers. Functionality is similar for the major players (Apple, Android, RIM, Windows), but falls off sharply on other platforms. Depending on what platforms need to be supported, the solution may be limited to the lowest common denominator, giving the app a clunky” look, or require time-consuming customization across browser versions. 

2)  Web apps generally1 cannot access the on-board hardware and software on a mobile device. Requirements such as camera control, direct GPS control (there is limited access to current location), PIM integration, or control of the phone app will rule out web apps right away. Heavy/complex custom graphics (gaming, etc.) also cannot be supported. 

3) Web apps generally require a connection to function, with performance issues if the website is slow or unavailable. When users are on the go without Wi-Fi coverage, they have to pay for connection time to network operators. In some countries the cost is minimal, but in others can be a showstopper. (This changes with HTML5, which makes web app content available in offline mode so users can still access the app even if they do not have cell reception or connection to a Wi-Fi network.

Mobile Native Application:

A native mobile app is built specifically for a particular device and its operating system. Unlike a web app that is accessed over the internet, a native app is downloaded from a web store and installed on the device. Native apps are written in Java, Objective C, or some other programming language. Native apps have a major advantage over web apps—the ability to leverage device-specific hardware and software. This means that native apps can take advantage of the latest technology available on mobile devices and can integrate with on-board apps such as the calendar, contacts, and email. However, this is a double-edged sword: while mobile technology is wildly popular, it is also constantly changing and highly fragmented. This makes the task of keeping up with the pace of emerging technology onerous and costly, especially on multiple platforms.

Advantages:

A richer, more compelling user experience: Native apps can leverage the capabilities of the mobile device, including onboard hardware (such as GPS, camera, and graphics) and software (such as email, calendar, contacts, picture/video gallery, file manager, and home screen widget areas).

Ability to run offline: Since the application remains installed on the device from the original download, no internet connection is required. Users get peak performance at all times, with all grap

Disadvantages:

Content publishers have to share information about their subscribers with the app store, an arrangement that frustrates publishers (particularly media companies). + For a native app to work across multiple devices, separate versions of the app are required. The fragmented nature of the mobile industry means that developing, testing, and porting apps for different environments costs money—particularly with maintenance and promotion costs. Cross-platform frameworks can make things easier, but time and cost remain a fact of life when developing for rich functionality on multiple mobile platforms. (The next section explores development issues for mobile apps in more detail

Publisher: Mobile - Tuesday, May 06, 2014

How to Choose Right Cross Platform for Mobile Application

I’m mostly going to focus on Android and iOS because those are the only major players that exist at present.

  

v  For Android, it is Java and either Eclipse or the new Android Studio, along with the Android SDK

v  For iOS, it is Objective-C and XCode.

v  For Windows Phone it would be C# and Visual Studio.

Note : However, I would recommend anyone seriously thinking about cross platform mobile development  to at least develop a simple app natively in both Android and iOS.  The reason for doing this is because it will make it easier for you to understand what is going on under the abstraction layer that a cross platform mobile development solution will provide you and it will help you to see the value or lack of value in a cross platform solution

A native application is developed using the tools provided by the device or operating system (OS) manufacturer and runs on a single platform. Example tools include the UIKit from Apple for creating an iOS app, or the Android software development kit (SDK) for creating an Android app.

2016 Market Share of Native Platforms1

•             68.8% Android

•             19.1% iOS

•             11.4% Windows Phone

•             4.1% BlackBerry OS

•             1.6% Other

Pros (Quality)

•             The user interface (UI) in the application is consistent with other core UI elements on the mobile device.

•             The performance of the application, including UI responsiveness, is better.

•             There are no third parties between your app and the device’s capabilities.

Cons (Cost)

•             Specific technical skills (e.g., Objective-C, C#, Java, etc.) are required for each platform, increasing development costs.

•             Code reuse across platforms is very low, increasing maintenance costs.

Cross-Platform

A cross-platform application is developed with a single code base, yet can run on multiple platforms. There are two types of cross-platform solutions: cross-platform native and hybrid. Cross-platform native solutions (CPNS) involve compiling a project down to native code and features, while hybrid solutions use a device’s embedded Web browser.

Mobile Website

A mobile website is viewed on a device’s native browser. In addition to accommodating smaller screens, a mobile website should tailor the experience to make mobile tasks easier. A mobile website may be created for a number of reasons, including:

•             In lieu of an installable app.

•             To accommodate unsupported platforms.

•             To insure any visitor on any device has a good experience

Publisher: Mobile - Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Why Mobile Apps are important for Enterprise ?

Revenues accumulated by the global mobile application market were expected to eclipse $30 billion by the end of 2012, according to ABI Research. Despite the lofty number, we have only scratched the surface for enterprise adoption of mobile apps. An Appcelerator survey of enterprise leaders released in January 2013 reports that 73 percent of enterprises have built fewer than five applications, and 39 percent have built none or just one.

While the enterprise application market is still nascent, there is clearly an understanding that mobility is critical for both employees and customers. Fifty-five percent of companies in the Appcelerator survey ranked mobility at the top or near the top of their priorities list, and 66 percent plan employee-facing mobile applications. Yet what may be less clear to your enterprise is whether the best app development path is to create a mobile app from scratch, use an app that requires customization, or purchase an app “off the shelf” from an app store. And then, how should your enterprise best distribute these applications to users once the apps are developed and available.

The app development debate is sapping up considerable organizational attention today – especially in large organizations that often have the budget and IT resources to build their own mobile business application. Whether the apps are designed for employees, customers, or both, your enterprise may be drawn to custom one-off apps for a number of perceived benefits, notably the ability to control the app environment, to ensure apps are accessed in a secure fashion, and to customize apps for specific devices and needs.
But many of these perceptions are outdated and/or flawed – and there are several key reasons enterprises must rethink internal mobile app development and the costly and resource-intensive path of building an enterprise app store.
Developing and managing a custom mobile application introduces a number of complexities to the organization. Even if a large enterprise is building out an enterprise app for a narrow, select number of platforms, it is still massively expensive. The bigger problem however is that large enterprises, just like smaller businesses, evolve and change – and so do their technology needs. As a result, a custom app can become more restrictive and less valuable for your enterprise over time unless you continue the costly process of updating the platform and adding new features, all of which typically requires developers and in the end may only support one mobile platform.

Custom-built enterprise apps can also inhibit innovation. Instead of hiring developers to support and maintain an app, innovation can be accelerated by levering a Cloud platform for apps that allows the enterprise to focus on iterating quickly and for developers to spend time thinking how to make the app environment more dynamic, rather than just trying to keep it up and running.

Once a traditional enterprise app is built, an organization must devote significant time and resources to ensure the platform or application supports and tests to new versions of operating systems and devices, while mitigating downtime and other technical/user issue.

Publisher: Mobile - Tuesday, May 06, 2014