PavingWays

We’ve been monitoring the mobile browser market pretty closely during the last couple of years, especially in regard to Mobile Ajax and how it could help to create new and powerful web applications for mobile phones.

Mobile Ajax is a lot of things and it always depends on the individual’s definition what is really meant, but one thing that is a pretty common aspect of Mobile Ajax is the ability that it might at some point be used as a gateway or API to connect the web browser on the phone with the device hardware, such as the GPS system thereby giving access to the device’s position within a mobile web application.

These things are in development at every mobile browser vendor today, that much is for sure, but what’s more interesting, because it’s hardly known, is that this functionality already exists on some BlackBerry Devices, namely those of the 8800 series! Now maybe we’ve been too busy developing our stuff lately to notice, maybe this time nobody really made a big buzz out of this, but personally I feel bad that I missed this until now, because I feel this might have a tremendous impact on mobile web application development:

As TonyB writes in an article called “Blackberry Browser & GPS” on his blog, certain BlackBerries provide a JavaScript object within the web browser that allows the web application to access latitude and longitude from the GPS module on the phone. Security is taken care of by asking the user to allow (or not) the application access to the physical location of the device in a Yes/No alert() window. Simple and, if it works, tremendously powerful!

Too bad BlackBerry devices are known for not having the world’s best web browser on them (to put it politely) - developer documentation seems not to be of much help either. But as results from our ever-running Frost library test show, there might be a BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry 8200 Cingular US (VendorID = 102), that already features support for Ajax. This could be a faked user agent string though, so if you have a 8820 and want to test it, just go to http://pwmwa.com/frost - or we can test it ourselves as soon as you send us over a BlackBerry 8200 ;) As we develop Groupile, we will make sure to include this as soon as possible too.

Please read all details and the code listing in TonyB’s article - thanks for blogging about this!

I totally forgot blogging about that and more or less for completeness reasons I want to mention that I have been attending the Google Android developer day in Munich (actually in Aschheim/Dornach) on January 29, 2008. I met Jason Chen, one of the presenters at the event, the day before at the Mobile Monday in Munich.

The people attending, at least most people I have been talking to, were mobile developers sent by their companies, pretty big ones. There were some start-up people there too, but not many. Comments and questions in general were pretty critical, detailed and practical. Interesting was the big interest of taking part in the Google Android development competition from the audience. Apparently mentioning 10 mio USD in price-money creates some interest ;)

I was of course mostly interested in the WebKit-based web browser in Android and I have to say it worked pretty well in the SDK emulator, it even has the same “bug” that I had experienced while testing the Frost library on the iPhone when it came out. So no surprises there too and one more browser to look at when developing mobile web apps, even though it’s almost the same browser as on the iPhone or Nokia’s S60 3rd edition phones (also exhibiting the “bug” mentioned above - so it’s apparently a WebKit issue after all).

Bottom line is: no surprises after all, Google leaves no event without mentioning that they’re looking for developers and if you’re interested in Android development, get the SDK and read the docs.

Wizzl, a Dutch company, is preparing to launch its all-in-one virtual phone. Users (”Wizzlers”) can talk, chat, have direct access to live TV, Internet radio and web games. Or as written on their website:

“Wizzl has developed free communication software which will allow its users (’Wizzlers’) to make free voice and video calls over the internet, and calls to local and international phones and mobiles from only 1.5 Eurocents per minute. And it doesn’t stop there; with Wizzl’s all-in-one virtual phone, Wizzlers will have direct access to live TV, internet radio stations and the most popular web games around. Personal photographs, music and videos will also be at users’ fingertips.”

The official (worldwide) launch will be at GamePlay, the largest game event of the Benelux, between 23 and 25 Nov. 2007.

You can test their (Windows) software on your desktop PC here: http://www.wizzl.com/intl/en/download. First-time downloaders get up to 10 minutes of free calling time to landlines and mobile phones across the world. Wizzler-to-Wizzler voice and video calls are completely free of charge. “The current beta version works on desktops and laptops only. In the very near future, Wizzl will also be available for mobile phones.”

Sources:
http://www.wizzl.com
http://www.gameplay.nl

The Mobile Ajax FAQ is created by Ajit Jaokar, Rocco Georgi and Bryan Rieger and is maintained at the Horizon Channel. We welcome comments and feedback at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com.This post has been moved to a page on PavingWays - the following questions link directly there.

• What is Mobile Ajax?
• Is there a Mobile Ajax checklist/minimum requirements?
• What does Mobile Ajax look like?
• Why should one do Ajax on mobile phones / what problem does it solve?
• What are the options to Mobile Ajax?
• How do Flash Lite and Java compare with Mobile Ajax?
• What is the difference between Ajax Platforms, Frameworks, Toolkits and Libraries?
• What existing Mobile Ajax frameworks, toolkits and libraries should I use?
• Can I use existing frameworks, libraries and toolkits?
• What is the relationship between Mobile Ajax and Mobile Widgets?
• Which browsers support Mobile Ajax?
• Which enterprise applications employ Mobile Ajax?
• What is the role of the Apple iPhone with respect to Mobile Ajax?
• How do applications like mojax or bling software fit in?
• How can you develop for and test on all those browsers?
• What are the (current) hurdles in implementing and running Mobile Ajax applications?
• What is AHAH / AJAH?
• Is there any standardization initiative for Ajax?

On April 16, 2007 Nokia announced their S60 platform would support widgets in subsequent releases. This means, using their WebKit based browser under the hood, newer phones (S60 3rd ed. with Feature Pack 2) will have support for those small applications, mostly serving not more than a single purpose (e.g. show the weather or an RSS feed) that are well known on the desktop since a couple of years now.

In preparation to my talk at this year’s XTech conference I want to point out some important things related to this announcement. I think widgets on (mobile) devices are a major step in the right direction and I feel the mobile web can finally get the boost it so desperately was waiting for since a couple of years now. “The Ubiquitous Web” is this year’s XTech topic - I feel the mobile web will become ubiquitous pretty soon…This article can be seen as a primer to my talk at XTech: Ajax on mobile devices — making mobile web apps ubiquitous.

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Today Steve Jobs unveiled the long-anticipated iPhone to the public. We gotta say this thing is amazing! Featuring a new input method called “Multi-touch”, which allows you to use several fingers at once to input “gestures”, the phone also features Wi-Fi (and EDGE) along with a version of Apple’s web browser Safari - this is possible, because the phone’s operating system is MAC OS X!

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In my presentation at the XML 2006 conference in Boston I tried to show that AJAX - as a technology in part based on XML - is a useful and promising tool to create web applications on mobile devices.

To emphasize this, I updated our event finder application that we had used on this year’s Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. The application basically is a website for mobile phones that shows the currently running events of a trade show or conference. In the updated version for the XML 2006 conference I added some AJAX stuff to show and test it’s usefulness:

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According to Telephia MapQuest Mobile (21.9 %) was the top revenue-generating downloadable mobile application in the first quarter of 2006. In second position came The Weather Channel (5.7 %) and in third the Verizon Superpages 2.0 (5.3 %). Two music applications, Music Choice and Sirius Music, rounded out the top five with revenue shares of 5 % and 4.8 %.

“Local maps/directions and up-to-date weather are well-suited to delivery via mobile phones because they are information needs characterized by immediacy, location-specificity, and time- sensitivity,” said Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia. “Downloadable mobile applications present a significant opportunity for higher ARPU [Average Revenue Per User], with more than 3.3 million mobile consumers downloading these applications during the first quarter of the year.”

(Data does not include revenue for mobile TV and mobile game applications which is reported separately)

Another interesting fact is, that maps/directions applications drive repeat purchase revenue, while entertainment applications claim highest revenue share for first-time purchases:

Maps/Directions and Weather applications are leading in repeat purchases. In contrary, nearly 30 % of first-time purchase revenues were driven by the Entertainment category, with streaming music mobile applications, Music Choice and Sirius Music, securing the highest new purchase revenue share at nearly 9 % and 8 %.

Sources:
http://www.cellular-news.com
http://www.telephia.com

Nintendo has finally announced the launch of the Opera web browser for the DS on October 6, 2006. In Japan the browser powered by Opera is already available (since July 24, 2006).

Taking advantage of the DS’ built-in Wi-Fi capabilities the browser allows the user to access the full internet, incl. webmail, online shops or secure bank websites. The browser will be sold as an optional DS card. Users simply insert the card into the Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens. Users will also be able to apply an optional filter (provided by Astaro) that will block inappropriate content for underage surfers. The recommended retail price is around £30 / 40 Euros.

Take a look at the video review: http://www.gizmodo.com
or check out “Tips & Tricks” how to use the DS browser: http://www.opera.com

Sources:
http://www.nintendo-europe.com
http://www.opera.com