Open source solves the mobile app dev dilemma

Enterprises are still in the early days of mobile application development, but the growing evidence suggests they should focus time and resources on cross-mobile-device applications. The problem is that with so many mobile devices and operating systems in play, IT just can’t build for even a sampling, never mind the whole lot.

However, open source and open technologies provide IT a way out of this dilemma.

Choosing among the many mobile platforms

There’s no doubt that building native mobile applications, targeted at and leveraging the native device capabilities, can produce very compelling user experiences. However, the question invariably boils down to which mobile platform should your enterprise build mobile application for.

The iPhone OS is definitely a leading contender. There’s an argument to be made for growing adoption of iPhone OS devices, as Morgan Stanley suggests the iPad is cannibalizing the netbook market.

Google’s Android, which now accounts for nearly half of U.S. mobile Web traffic, is also a major player. However, it’s interesting to note that Motorola, a key Android partner and device manufacturer, is rumored to have acquired a mobile OS company, Azingo. What’s more, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha iss quoted as saying:

I’ve always felt that owning your OS is important, provided you have an ecosystem, you have all the services, and you have an ability and the scale to execute on keeping that OS at the leading edge. And I continue to believe that at some point, if we have all of those attributes, that owning our own OS will be a very important thing.

Hewlett-Packard, fresh off its Palm acquisition, plans to further invest in WebOS and develop new tablets using the platform.

RIM is now planning to release its own tablet based on the BlackBerry OS, most likely version 6, to target the consumer market. This makes sense for RIM as it has many of the ecosystem and scale capabilities that Motorola’s Sanjay Jha deems a requirement for owning an operating system.

And we shouldn’t forget that Nokia is betting on Symbian’s successor MeeGo, and Microsoft is betting on the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 OS for smartphones and potential tablet devices.

Infinite requirements with finite IT budgets

Given infinite time and resources, enterprises could target a few or all of these platforms with native applications — and therein lies the huge challenge IT departments and their line of business peers face. Today, the vast majority of enterprises developing traditional Web applications build and test for one to three PC-based browsers.

These enterprises simply don’t have the resources to build native device applications for even two of the leading mobile platforms in addition to the traditional PC-based application. This is the overarching message I’ve heard when talking to customers about their mobile application plans and challenges.

You don’t have to pick the platform “winners”

It’s important not to base mobile application development plans on the decisions of early-adopter companies. Many of the best-known enterprise mobile applications, especially for the iPhone, have been built using the device’s SDK. This is to be expected as early adopters experiment with user experiences and get ahead of the competition. But over time, these businesses are bound by the same IT economics as other companies. As the user base shifts from PC-based browsers to both PC- and mobile-based browsers, the need to target this range of devices requires a “build once, test often” approach common to a larger IT budget.

You’re not likely to get that larger budget, especially over the long run. So the best approach is to build cross-device applications. As countless others have stated, the mobile experience will be dominated by HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Even Adobe has pledged to deliver first-class HTML5 tools.

Of course, the challenge of building open Web standards-compliant applications using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript alone is that these applications don’t get to take advantage of native device capabilities, like GPS or the accelerometer. This is where open source frameworks from PhoneGap, Rhomobile, Appcelerator, and the like come in. These frameworks allow companies to build cross-device applications while also taking advantage of some of the more common native device capabilities like the accelerometer or GPS.

There are obviously considerations about application lock-in to the framework itself versus building against open Web standards. If this is a concern for your business, ensure that the open source license and the community around the open source framework meets your requirements for flexibility and future freedom of action.

Are you building native mobile applications today, and more important, do you expect to in two or five years?

Follow me on Twitter at SavioRodrigues. I should state: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.”

This article, “Open source solves the mobile app dev dilemma,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Rodrigues et al.’s Open Sources blog and follow the latest developments in open source and mobile computing at InfoWorld.com.