Build Once, Deploy Anywhere - Dion Almaer at FOWA
Posted on Mar 01, 2010
Palm was the next presenter at FOWA Miami 2010, represented by Dion
Almaer (and Ben - no last name provided). They are discussing about the
idea of build once, deploy anywhere in terms of devices such as smart
phones and Kindle. The issue for developers is that as devices
proliferate, there is increasing fragmentation with unique SDKs for each
type of device. This can leave to a lot of pain as we are forced to
make "bets" on which devices we plan on supporting.
Dion and Ben
reminded us that this happened before in the early days of home PC's
with a variety of platforms. Eventually one company won
(Microsoft/Windows) which made development easier but it also limited
innovation to a degree. Web applications helped to change this by not
relying on the local platform (me: to a degree). However, this hasn't
happened yet in the device space - but they think this is going to
change (and potentially not cause a one company domination of the
devices market).
All the devices have the web built in though in
some cases its a bit of an afterthought. Palm, apparently, thinks that
the web should be the native application platform across mobile devices.
They believe there isn't a better platform out there for mixing text
and graphical layout for application development. However, it is not
able to do some things like, for instance, rich graphics or 3D games -
at least at the moment; they say that is changing. Technologies for
doing 3D graphics and other visualizations via the web browser already
exist but are in their infancy.
Also, addressing another
limitation, they say the web is not slow, as some claim. Most browsers
have seen enormous improvements in JavaScript performance over the past
few years. Another limitation has been the web's inability to do
background threading but even that is changing.
The next step is
getting your applications out to various devices. You could just put a
URL out there and make it mobile capable and use things like AppCache to
make it more performant. You also could make packaged applications so
that you can get things in the Apple or Android app stores. You
currently need to be in the packaged applications space at the moment in
order to get the most users. Nonetheless, as things are improving you
can do most anything that could be done in a native application via a
web application on a mobile phone browser.
Appcelerator Titanium
and other services give you access to the device functions.
Appcelerator, for instance, allows you to generate assets for multiple
platforms such as iPhone and Android. Phonegap, another service, is
about giving you access to low level device APIs on the multiple devices
via the browser. jQTouch is another library they discuss for getting
multi-touch functionality via the browser.
On a personal note,
this session, while good overall, at times focused too much on Palm
products (i.e. the Pre) to be realistic. Given that WebOS market share
lags well behind both iPhone (obviously) and Android, this focus seemed
more marketing than reality.
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