Epicentre News » Mobile madness: the minefield of mobile development and testing
Mobile madness: the minefield of mobile development and testing
Remember Marble Madness, the 80s arcade hit which saw you navigating a marble along a precarious serious of cliffs, valleys and slopes? One slip-up would see you dropping into oblivion...
Developing for mobile is a little like playing Marble Madness. There are so many sharp drops all around you that it's difficult to know where the safe route through is. By 'sharp drops', of course, we mean the quantity of mobile manufacturers, Operating Systems and variety of input technologies available today, and by 'safe route' we’re referring to your development considerations for reaching your target customers and users.
Fortunately Epicentre's mobile specialists have been hard at work in the information mines, extracting rich veins of knowledge which have been compiled into a useful set of Top 5s:
Top 5 Mobile Vendors
- Apple – 19.1%
- Samsung – 16.2%
- Nokia – 15.7%
- RIM – 11.6%
- HTC – 11%
It's little surprise to see Apple occupying the top spot, but it's a little more surprising to see Samsung so high up – perhaps because they blow their own trumpet a lot less than their companions. This position is nonetheless deserved due, in part, to the quality of their Galaxy tablets and other smartphones.
Top 5 Android Smartphones
- HTC Thunderbolt
- HTC EVO 4G
- HTC Droid Incredible
- HTC Inspire 4G
- Motorola Droid X
These, in particular, are causing a lot of confusion due to the semi-open source nature of Android and Google’s willingness to certify many device manufacturers. Perhaps surprisingly, Google’s own Nexus One comes in twelfth.
Top 5 Mobile OS Market Share
- Android – 43%
- Symbian 22%
- iOS – 18%
- RIM – 12%
- Microsoft – 2%
Seeing Android at the top may not surprise you, but given what's been in the news lately it's easy to forget that Nokia were once the mobile monarchs, and that heritage still gives them a big market share, especially in S. America, Africa and Asia. We believe that they are now developing for Windows 8.
Top 5 Tablets
- Apple iPad 2
- Apple iPad 1
- Apple iPad Asus Eee Pad Transformer
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
- Motorola Xoom
No surprises to see the modern-day tablets from Apple at the top. On the rise is HP’s Touchpad currently at number 8 but sure to prove even more popular due to its $205 price tag.
Top 5 Most Anticipated Mobile Devices
- iPhone 5 – disappointed by the 4S? iPhone 5 is now threatened for 2012.
- HTC Titan & HTC Radar – shipping with Windows Phone 7.5. Perhaps an interim offering until the release of Windows 8?
- Samsung Galaxy Note – the next entry in the popular Samsung tablet series.
- Amazon Kindle Fire – could make big waves in the tablet marketplace.
- Aakash/UbiSlate 7 – never heard of it? Targeted at India and the developing world, at an ultra-low cost of $35. Personal computing has never been more widely available; it is no coincidence that the increased availability of wifi and tablets means many countries are skipping cabled connectivity altogether.
Top 5 Compatibility Concerns
- Operating System – what platforms could you, and should you, support? And therefore, which devices?
- Screen size and aspect ratio – can you ensure your product scales on a tiny 320x240 screen as well as it does on a large 800x480 tablet, and that it handles differing aspect ratios correctly?
- Input method #1 – do you support touchscreens? What about flipping the screen? Are capacitative and reactive touchscreens equally supported?
- Input method #2 – does your product support QWERTY vs. alphanumeric keypads? What about behaviour with hard keys (keys that are always available e.g. “home”)?
- Phone service interruptions – different functions can interupt an app including alerts, calls, emails and drops in connectivity. How will your product behave in these instances?
If you would like to know more about any of the above or obtain fuller lists, please get in touch with us: marketingenq@epicentre.co.uk
