Testing Wireless Networks Featured Article

Because of their different place in the mobile ecosystem, it is understandable that what mobile app developers really want from mobile service providers is simply reliable data access, a new survey by Vision Mobile, sponsored by Telefonica, has found.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents surveyed think that the role of network operators should be to deliver data access anywhere and anytime. That in fact is precisely what one would expect in a loosely-coupled ecosystem: the different participants can create their services, features and applications in an abstracted way. See the full results here http://www.visionmobile.com/research.php#devecon.

That doesn't mean there are not opportunities; simply that partnerships have not yet flourished in the still-developing new ecosystem. The majority of developers surveyed said they had not interacted directly with operators as part of their application creation efforts. On the other hand, almost 70 percent of respondents thought there was little or no developer support from network operators, either. That suggests a potential opening for service providers.

Developers are somewhat aware of mobile service provider efforts to create standards, consortia and joint initiatives, but it does not appear such efforts have much current developer mindshare.

There are some developing trends. On average, the Symbian (News - Alert) platform takes 15 months or more to learn, while for Android the average reported time is less than six months, developers said.

Symbian also is viewed as much more difficult and time consuming to program than iOS (iPhone (News - Alert)), Android or Java ME. A Symbian developer needs to write almost three times more code than an Android developer, and twice as much code as an iPhone developer.

Those results suggest some of the reasons developer interest in Android (News - Alert) is relatively high at the moment: it simply is easier and faster to develop an application using Android.

The results also indicate the importance of community and other forums. An overwhelming majority of developers (more than 80 percent of respondents) rely on community or unofficial forums for support during software development, while websites are used for support by only 40 percent of respondents.

In terms of debugging, the study suggsests that Android has the fastest debugging process, compared with iPhone, Symbian and Java ME. Debugging in Symbian takes up more than twice the time it takes on Android.

The study also suggests another avenue mobile service providers can take to attract or enhance developer interest. Access to unpublished or 'hidden' device application programming interfaces is a control point for platform vendors, but it is also what developers seem to be willing to pay for.

The survey suggests developers are more willing to pay for access to such hidden APIs than any other type of technical support from service providers.

The report authors therefore believe that platform providers could benefit from tiered software development kit  programs, where privileged SDKs are available to developers on a subscription plan.

Mobile operator API programs have so far failed to appeal to developers, though. Only five percent of respondents thought that the role of network operators should be to expose network APIs.

That doesn't mean network service providers have no valuable assets to share. More than half of respondents. said they would pay for billing APIs, followed by messaging and location APIs.

Java ME is available on around three billion handsets, but the platform can boast less than half of the apps available for the much younger Android, shipped in only 20 million devices as of the end of the second half of 2010.

Similarly, the Symbian operating system is deployed in around 390 million handsets (end of first half of 2010), and claims over 6,000 apps, while Apple's (News - Alert) iOS has achieved 30 times more apps over just 60 million units.

For the most part, mobile service providers will earn most of their money from their 'access' businesses. To some extent, that 'pipe' function is inescapable: it simply is where mobile networks sit in the developing ecosystem.

But the survey suggests some logical ways mobile network providers can participate a bit more in application revenue: expose billing, messaging and location APIs. Application platforms might enhance their attractiveness a bit by exposing 'hidden' features.