Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/212250
48 Information Technology/Events maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2013 Past, present and future of Mobile Apps Mark Bishop Mobile Applications – or 'Apps', for short – have become a necessity, if not a dependency. Virtually every smartphone or portable device user will agree that they cannot see themselves going back once they get accustomed to using Mobile Apps. The wide range of services and features that are provided through Mobile Apps help improve the way we conduct business, the way we work, but also the way we entertain ourselves. From the early days, Mobile App developers were faced with the problem of compatibility between target devices. For instance, an App developed to run on a particular device would not run on any other device without considerable effort, which normally meant maintaining different versions of the Mobile App for each different device that it was to run on. Besides the platform (Operating System) type and version, there are always other factors that make Mobile Apps hard to maintain such as different screen sizes and available resources such as processing power and memory, not only from mobile device manufacturer to another but also from one generation of the same mobile device to another. Over the years, mobile device manufacturers have managed to drastically reduce the effort involved in maintaining Mobile App compatibility between different generations of devices through an improved Application Programming Interface which takes away most of the compatibility work from the Mobile App developers when they follow the provided programming guidelines and methods. While these improved APIs have made it much easier to develop and maintain Mobile Apps, they still don't provide any means of compatibility between devices from different manufacturers, and as such, a version of the same Mobile app still needs to be maintained for each target platform. Today we have essentially four major mobile device platforms which comprise over 90% of all mobile devices on the market, namely Google Android, Apple iOS, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. The major two being Google Android and Apple iOS in order of total market share. This means that Mobile App developers have to primarily decide to which mobile platform(s) to target their App, and eventually maintain at least one version of the Mobile App for each of the target platforms. Mobile Apps have traditionally required some form of internet connectivity which would either enhance the way they work or be the make or break of their usefulness in the first place. With the advent of Cloud Computing, the relevance of the target platform is becoming less and less significant since the global focus is turning to web based applications, which essentially rely on the capabilities of the web browser within the mobile devices. Web/ HTML based Mobile Apps have already been in production for some time and are gaining in popularity. Some are also able to run offline, effectively eliminating the need to be connected to the internet all the time. Web-based Apps are believed to represent the future of Mobile Apps because they will effectively eliminate the need to maintain different versions of the App for different mobile devices and platforms. With the aid of standards like the upcoming HTML5 and CSS3 it will be much easier for developers to target multiple devices with the same App, since the underlying technology required to run web-based Apps will Mo' awareness, Mo' funds IT'S Movember, and JP Advertising are bringing the Mo back, for a serious cause: raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health. As an independent global charity, Movember's vision is to have an everlasting impact on the face of men's health. JPA's Mo Bros are growing their own Mo's this November in all shapes and sizes and have been appointed as JPA's Movember Ambassadors. While the growing of moustaches is just for Mo' Bros, the Mo' Sistas are pitching in by spreading the word, encouraging the men in their life to get tested for prostate and testicular cancer. Now we want to get you, your family, friends and pets involved. On Wednesday, 20 November at 8am, JPA will be unveiling the JPA Movember Challenge, a 2 metre long moustache, to be finished off with a highly intricate, detailed illustration; the brainchild of one of JPA's Mo Bros, Glenn Ellul. So, what's the challenge? JPA will have a timer set, and it's got only 30 minutes on the clock! Impossible? That's where you come in. We need to raise some funds and a lot of awareness. Make a donation directly to the international Movember organisation via JPA's Movember Team page movember.jpadvertising.com or help us raise awareness by going to facebook.com/jpadvertising and sharing the live feed, as we work on this giant moustache. For each donation or Facebook share we get, extra minutes will be added to our 30-minute time frame. All donations can be made securely via PayPal. Read more about JPA Movember 2013 Challenge here: http://jpadvertising.com/portfolio/jpamovember13/ And show your support so we'll raise much needed funds and awareness. Over the years, mobile device manufacturers have managed to drastically reduce the effort involved in maintaining Mobile App compatibility be present on all mobile devices and the standardisation ensures that they perform the same, irrespective of the mobile device's particular features. Some considerations will still need to be made of course, with particular emphasis to differences in screen sizes, but these should be fairly manageable. www.alert.com.mt Mark Bishop is the head of the Alert eBusiness Data Centre