Report Summary
Mobile Widgets are beginning to take over the mobile industry and will change the way we use our phones forever. Less than a decade ago our phones changed from portable telephones into mobile computing platforms providing us with a variety of information at our fingertips. This paradigm shift has changed the industry in broad sweeping strokes. It has changed carriers, attracted software and hardware companies, even created its own standards for web development. The largest of carriers are changing policy, rate plans, and network access to accommodate the growing market. Software giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Sun, and others have millions of dollars invested in their mobile operating systems. Hardware manufacturers are finding new and innovative ways to make viewing and using our new mobile platforms more intuitive.
The exponential growth of this industry has turned it into a breeding ground of innovation, with new ideas being released to consumers almost daily. The marketplace and its leaders changes year by year. Only a short while ago Motorola was the dominant force in the market. Palm and the PalmOS used to dominate the mobile PDA OS space along with Mobile Widgets, now Palm ships many devices with Windows Mobile. Apple took the industry by storm with their foray into the mobile space with the iPhone, and once again Mobile Widgets changed.
Who will be the big players in the future? What is this year's Killer Application?
Target Audience
Wireless Carriers: Carriers will want to understand the dynamics of mobile application development in order to ensure their networks can deliver what their subscribers need
Mobile Handset Manufacturers:
Business Application Providers: Many of the highly successful Mobile Widgets target the mobile needs of business users
Mobile Application Developers: The market is changing and even experienced developers will need to keep up with changes
Network Hardware Vendors: As the needs of mobile applications change, so will their demands on the networks that support them
Marketing Professionals:
Handset Accessory Manufacturers:
Web Developers: Soon many popular web sites will be accessed by thousands of mobile users. Web developers will need to know what those devices are capable of viewing and engaging content
Mobility Data, Content, and Advertising Solution Providers: Mobile Widgets will be developed for markets as yet unrealized by the mobile industry
Select Report Findings
Mobile Widgets can be based upon hardware, native code, portable code, and web based applications.
Successful hardware platforms one year may be replaced by newer hardware innovations the next.
WAP, WML, J2ME while still important, are being replaced with more traditional application development and web applications.
Mobile browsers are evolving to rival their desktop counterparts.
Dynamic web technologies such as AJAX, Flash, and soon Silverlight are finding their way into mobile platforms.
The ARM processor platform is currently the dominant processor architecture of today's smart phones.
Successful Mobile Widgets no longer need to come from handset manufacturers or wireless carriers.
The Mobile Widget market's growth rates and recent innovations are predicted to continue to grow while other parts of the economy show signs of slowing down.
Mobile Widgets are impacting how carriers and hardware vendors do business, causing changes that serve the Mobile Widget marketplace.
Companies Mentioned
Adobe
America's Emergency Network
Apple
AT&T Mobility
CoolTek
Danger Mobile
DEC
Dexterra
FasTap
FireFox
Handspring
Intel
Land Rover
LG
LiMo
Marvel
Microsoft
MIT
Modu Mobile
Motorola
OpenMoko
Opera
Palm
PopCap
Qualcomm
RIM
SalesForce
Samsung
Sony Ericsson
Starbucks
Sun Microsystems
Symbian
T-Mobile USA
Verizon
Report Outline
1 Executive Summary
2 Definition of a Mobile Widget
2.1 What Separates a Widget From a Bundled Device Feature?
2.2 Examples of Current Mobile Widgets
3 History of Mobile Platform Programming
3.1 The First Widget
3.2 Hardware Widgets?
3.3 Hardware and Software Evolution
3.3.1 Hardware evolution
3.3.1.1 The Smartphone revolution
3.3.2 Development platform evolution
3.3.2.1 Palm
3.3.2.2 WAP, WML, and HTML
3.3.2.2.1 HTML and Mini Browsers
3.3.2.2.2 Adobe, Flash, and Director
3.3.2.2.3 JavaScript
3.3.2.2.4 AJAX
3.3.3 Development future
4 Platform Architectures.
4.1 Platform Specific Development.
4.1.1 Symbian
4.1.2 Windows Mobile
4.1.3 Blackberry OS
4.1.4 iPhone OSX
4.1.5 Linux
4.1.6 Palm OS
4.1.7 Danger Hiptop, SideKick
4.1.8 Android
4.2 Portable Widget Development
4.2.1 J2ME Platform
4.3 Web Based Widgets
4.3.1 WAP/WML/XML
4.3.2 HTML
4.3.2.1 Browser Constraints by Platform
5 Key Development Concepts
5.1 Size Constraints
5.1.1 Compact Code
5.1.2 Compact File Space
5.2 Display Constraints
5.2.1 Display Sizes and Standards
5.2.2 Multiple Displays
5.3 Input and Controls
5.3.1 Input device types
5.3.1.1 Keypad
5.3.1.2 Keyboard
5.3.1.3 Touch Screen
5.3.1.4 Scroll Wheel
5.3.1.5 Thumb Sticks, Roller Balls, and Direction Pads
5.3.2 Environmental Controls
5.3.2.1 Motion and Orientation Sensors
5.3.2.2 Light Sensors
5.3.3 Peripheral Access
5.3.3.1 GPS onboard and off
5.3.3.2 Bluetooth
5.3.3.3 Infrared
5.4 Network Access
5.4.1 Connection Persistence
5.4.1.1 Dial on Demand
5.4.1.2 Always On
5.4.2 Connection Types and Limitations
5.4.2.1 Cellular Data
5.4.2.2 WiFi
5.4.2.3 WiMax
5.4.2.4 Bluetooth
5.5 Processing
5.5.1 Platforms and Speeds
5.6 Web Widget development
5.6.1 Limitations of Web Based Applications
5.6.2 A note about WAP/WML translators, compression gateways, and proxies
5.7 Licensing
5.7.1 License Model Table by Platform
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