14 DAY TRIAL // ABI Research, a company that provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of emerging trends in global connectivity, claims “Apple’s iPhone sparked an explosion in consumer awareness of mobile applications.” However, the company stresses, “Most of today’s applications need handsets with robust computing power, limiting their potential market.” To solve this, ABI Research proposes a new architecture based on software running in the cloud.
The company believes the concept will drastically change the way mobile applications are developed, acquired, and used. In fact, ABI claims, cloud computing could dominate the mobile application market by 2014. ABI Research itself admits that the approach does pose some challenges, such as intermittent network availability. A cloud-based mobile service will become inoperable as the device loses its connection. Still, ABI believes it has the answer to this issue as well – HTML 5, which enables data caching on the handset, allowing work to continue until the signal is restored, the company explains.
“Mobile application developers today face the challenge of multiple mobile operating systems,” Senior Analyst Mark Beccue says. “Either they must write for just one OS, or create many versions of the same application. More sophisticated apps require significant processing power and memory in the handset. Using Web development, applications can run on servers instead of locally, so handset requirements can be greatly reduced and developers can create just one version of an application. This trend is in its infancy today, but ABI Research believes that eventually it will become the prevailing model for mobile applications.”
“Cloud computing will bring unprecedented sophistication to mobile applications,” Beccue notes. “To mention just a few examples, business users will benefit from collaboration and data sharing apps. Personal users will gain from remote access apps allowing them to monitor home security systems, PCs or DVRs, and from social networking mashups that let them share photos and video or incorporate their phone address books and calendars.”
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