Platform War
There are several platforms that dominate today's smartphone market, including Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS and Windows Mobile, Palasamudram said. “In terms of developer preference, the most preferred is iOS, followed by Android, BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile.”
While Android's market share is the highest, it is also important to consider that it comprises devices from several manufacturers and the specs vary widely. The result is a relatively more complex development process where developers must ensure that their applications support a wide spectrum of devices that have different processors, display sizes and resolutions, and sensors, while also varying in build quality. From a developer's standpoint, iOS is a bit easier in that there is a closed platform with limited target devices, Hope said. “However, I do not know if we can yet make the call on this in terms of one platform over the other. New Android phones are getting better performance and catching up to iOS devices.”
The tools that are available to developers are also a factor to consider. “The tools for developing iOS apps are more comprehensive and user-friendly, which render the process for programming much easier and smoother,” Ku said. “Also, from a programmer 's perspective, integration requires less effort on iOS, compared to Android, where the process of building library components requires more work and the tools are less user-friendly. Although this has no impact on end users, it increases development time and cost.”
Currently, Vivotek's priority is enhancing user experience and increasing functionality on iOS, Ku said. “With regards to other platforms, we will assess Windows Mobile 8 when it is released, as we need to see how the market reacts to it. As for BlackBerry, it has a very niche market.”
The end-to-end experience is the real measure of any service, Hope said. “There will always be a series of devices that are less powerful than others, but this is likely to be a constant in this business.
“Users will end up selecting their portable device on their intended use, and app developers need to be vigilant to do the best possible job to minimize the negative impact of low-end devices and maximize the experience of all higher-end/more capable devices.”
“Users prefer specific devices, already own them and want to use them. Surveillance software should be able to provide for these users a seamless solution,” Palasamudram added.
Native or Web-Based
It is next to impossible for a manufacturer to support all platforms, as it requires a different code base for each, said Neville Clifton, Chief Technologist and Director of Alarm New Zealand.
“Support for four major platforms already requires significant resources, and is more likely to be provided by software companies than camera manufacturers,” Ku said.
HTML5 and Javascript have come a long way in enabling Web apps but still require further development. “The generic approach of providing strictly browser-based solutions at this time is not likely to yield an optimized solution for the end user,” Hope said. “However, we do not know if the gap will be closed in the future, so we need to be cognizant of both possibilities.”
At this point, native SDK-derived apps appear to offer the cleanest looking apps for the targeted devices, Hope said. “Each SDK has its own set of tools that is designed to provide an exceptional end-user experience for the target devices it supports.”
In or Out?
If a manufacturer decides to develop a mobile application to complement its hardware, there are two paths: develop the application in-house, or outsource the work to professional developers. There are pros and cons to each.
Honeywell Security employs both strategies, Hope said. ”We use in-house expertise to make sure that data security and connectivity to servers are realized while at the same time utilizing external resources to refine the GUI.”
For in-house development, manufacturers are able to exercise better control over every aspect of the application and its development process, as well as quicker response to customers, Palasamudram said. However, this is challenging in that they must employ and manage a capable team, which may be more difficult than simply outsourcing.
Hardware manufacturers may be better served by outsourcing completely to a software developer than trying to outsource to a development company and maintain it, Palasamudram cautioned. “The latter route will be far more expensive.”