Mobile has undoubtedly taken advertising, shopping, gaming and general day to day life into a whole new age. It offers convenience, immediacy and a whole range of services and features all available from almost anywhere at any time. However, whilst many of us only see the positives and conveniences mobile has to offer, there is a persistent challenge facing mobile developers that is becoming an ever increasing issue for the evolution of mobile, "Mobile Fragmentation."
Mobile fragmentation refers specifically to platform and device fragmentation and as Damith C. Rajapakse, lecturer at National University of Singapore School of Computing says, "to develop an application against a reference-operating context (OC) and achieve the intended behaviour in all OC's suitable for the application." For instance, this means that for any start-up mobile entrepreneur and already established mobile player alike, designing and developing a single application for all major platforms and devices is simply impossible.
This fragmentation poses a serious issue then. To design and develop applications specific to each of the major platforms and devices around the world is highly inefficient cost wise in both the short term and the long term, especially when we consider that developers would have to provide software updates for the application on each device. Hardware diversities, Software diversities, User Preference diversities, Implementation diversities, and Environment diversities all contribute to a long list of aspects that developers encounter when designing an application for mobile and for the various platforms and devices.
To further indicate the extent of the issue, Mr Rajapakse says that "mobile fragmentation also stems from implementation diversity, resulting from implementation bugs/quirks and is considered one of the most tiresome type of fragmentations, according to practitioners." There is also "user-preference diversity, in elements including language, style, etc. environmental diversity, such as diversity in the deployment infrastructure (e.g., branding by carrier, gateway characteristics, restrictions on access to outside the network etc.), locale, local standards."
What all this means for many developer's is that when designing an application for instance, they must either focus the application for a single device or platform, or develop the application for the major range of devices and platforms. This poses serious cost inefficiencies and ultimately effects application users, developers, content providers and distributors, network operators and device manufacturers. Despite these seemingly detrimental effects however, there is still a strong debate as to whether mobile fragmentation is indeed 'detrimental' or whether it promotes healthy competition for mobile. Only time will tell however, if the developers seeking the "magic bullet" that will allow for ultimate de-fragmentation of mobile, are chasing a mobile innovation or a fantasy.
Mobile fragmentation refers specifically to platform and device fragmentation and as Damith C. Rajapakse, lecturer at National University of Singapore School of Computing says, "to develop an application against a reference-operating context (OC) and achieve the intended behaviour in all OC's suitable for the application." For instance, this means that for any start-up mobile entrepreneur and already established mobile player alike, designing and developing a single application for all major platforms and devices is simply impossible.
This fragmentation poses a serious issue then. To design and develop applications specific to each of the major platforms and devices around the world is highly inefficient cost wise in both the short term and the long term, especially when we consider that developers would have to provide software updates for the application on each device. Hardware diversities, Software diversities, User Preference diversities, Implementation diversities, and Environment diversities all contribute to a long list of aspects that developers encounter when designing an application for mobile and for the various platforms and devices.
To further indicate the extent of the issue, Mr Rajapakse says that "mobile fragmentation also stems from implementation diversity, resulting from implementation bugs/quirks and is considered one of the most tiresome type of fragmentations, according to practitioners." There is also "user-preference diversity, in elements including language, style, etc. environmental diversity, such as diversity in the deployment infrastructure (e.g., branding by carrier, gateway characteristics, restrictions on access to outside the network etc.), locale, local standards."
What all this means for many developer's is that when designing an application for instance, they must either focus the application for a single device or platform, or develop the application for the major range of devices and platforms. This poses serious cost inefficiencies and ultimately effects application users, developers, content providers and distributors, network operators and device manufacturers. Despite these seemingly detrimental effects however, there is still a strong debate as to whether mobile fragmentation is indeed 'detrimental' or whether it promotes healthy competition for mobile. Only time will tell however, if the developers seeking the "magic bullet" that will allow for ultimate de-fragmentation of mobile, are chasing a mobile innovation or a fantasy.
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