[I-mobile-u] Thoughts on developing native mobile apps

[David R. Morton]

Andrew,

Our strategy (still in evolving) is to utilize a mixture of native apps for a couple of key platforms and mobile optimized web for others. The decision on native vs web for a platform depend upon features available in native form, platform penetration and funding. In our environment, the iPhone dominates with almost 90% of handheld wifi devices being an iPhone/Touch (see www.freshlymobile.com<http://www.freshlymobile.com> for latest stats).

On the native app side, we are in the process of developing a native iPhone app. We are looking at a three phased approach:
* Outsource - Utilizing Terriblyclever to get something professional up and running quickly.
* Enhance - Begin integrating our technologies and custom functions into that platform, improving mobile optimized web and evaluating strategy based on lessons learned in first app(s).
* Extend - This third phase may be built upon TC or something else all together.

I think we share your concerns about TC and Blackboard. The stock license agreement is very one sided as it relates to IP. We are working to get some more middle ground. At this point we are continuing with our stated direction.

As we move towards the 2nd and 3rd phases, I expect more of our development to be internal or maybe open source type collaboration.

David




David Morton
Director, Mobile Communications Strategies
University of Washington
dmorton at u.washington.edu<mailto:dmorton at uw.edu>
tel 206.221.7814


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On Jul 16, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Andrew Yu wrote:

Greetings!

I have a quick question to the group regarding the "native"
application development:

How does your institution feel about developing native applications
and which method is preferred?
a. outsourcing
b. internal development, deployment, and maintenance
c. open source collaboration

MIT has been exploring our options for developing the MIT iPhone
native application. (don't worry, we are continuing with the MIT
Mobile Web.) The goal is to provide multi-platform mobile apps that
deliver advanced features and functionalities that go above and beyond
what mobile web apps can deliver.

a. outsourcing: Up until yesterday, we were considering working with
Terriblyclever (TC - developer of iStanford and Duke Mobile iPhone
native apps - now part of BlackBoard). I won't go into the pros and
cons as the TC entity just became BlackBoard, but the major concern
that we had was the ownership of the intellectual property.

b. We also started our own development effort with MIT students to
investigate the possibilities of the iPhone native application and how
we can deliver compelling applications and content.

c. open source collaboration: if MIT built our own iPhone native app,
it would be great if we can use iMobileU to collaborate with others.

What do you think?

Andrew

________________________________
Andrew Yu
Mobile Platform Manager and Architect
Information Services & Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 617-324-8985
Email: andrewyu at mit.edu<mailto:andrewyu at mit.edu>

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