It's a debate that's raged since the first smartphones hit the market: should you develop native mobile applications, or web sites that are optimized for mobile devices?  The answer seems as elusive as ever.  The fact that we're still having the debate is itself something of an answer though; both are viable solutions.

The debate is so often framed in either-or terms, however there's no reason you can't do both.  If you expect that you have customers who will download a mobile app, then you also have customers who will find your web site on a mobile browser.  A mobile-optimized web site is increasingly important for most businesses, and should be a starting point for anyone asking the question to begin with.

Ask the Right Question

But the real question, from a technology perspective, is how to expose more sophisticated functionality to your mobile customers.  Native apps will usually be more fluid, be able to access all of the features of the device, will conform to the experience the user expects for their specific device, and will usually perform better than web sites.  They will also usually cost more to develop and will be limited to just those devices on the selected platform (iOS, Android, etc.)

A web-based application, on the other hand, will run on any smartphone (more or less).  But, you won't get access to all of the hardware features of the device, and the interface will not look like the native apps that it will run alongside.  Another downfall that's often overlooked is that it is harder for potential users to discover web applications, as compared to browsing a centralized app store.  On the flip side, there are a lot more developers out there who can work with web technologies than with the native development environments, and they are often cheaper.

This is just touching the surface, and there are no hard and fast rules.  It might seem, for instance, that gaming is best done as a native app - and this is undoubtedly true for games that rely on high-framerate 3D graphics.  But games that are suitable for Flash or HTML5 may work very well as a mobile web app.  So spend some time up front, and ask some questions.

• What technologies are feasible?
• What are your potential users' expectations?
• How critical is performance?
• How will you market and distribute the app?

Every project is unique, so don't let anyone tell you there is only one answer.  Your project will drive the answer that's right for you.

Interested in your own mobile app?

If you are interested in developing an app, or extending an app you already have to multiple platforms to reach a wider range of users, contact KeyLimeTie at 630.598.9000 or sales@keylimetie.com.

Consumers are showing increased interest in Windows Phone 7 devices, known for their fresh, intuitive user interfaces with a clean design. Microsoft is well poised as a contender in the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Google. At KeyLimeTie, we're seeing growing interest from clients as well, and are engaged in several projects to take existing iOS and Android apps and build WP7 versions of them.

Analysts have projected that WP7 could overtake the iPhone's marketshare as early as 2015. Today the WP7 app marketplace is still in its infancy, so getting an app in the Marketplace now allows for more visibility, and there's really an opportunity for the best apps to ride the platform to success as it grows. Microsoft is even offering co-marketing opportunities to promote popular or name brand apps. With the "Mango" update expected in the fall, "WP7's capabilities will be on par with iOS and Android," says Peter Morano, CIO at KeyLimeTie.

Another advantage of Windows Phone is the rich developer tools Microsoft provides; these tools allow for rapid development of WP7 apps, which means these apps can cost significantly less to develop than their iOS and Android counterparts. Microsoft invited KeyLimeTie COO Brian Pautsch (@brianpautsch) and CIO Peter Morano (@petermorano) to attend an intensive, week-long Windows Phone development accelerator where Microsoft made their WP7 developer trainers available to assist with projects, with the aim of releasing apps to the store that week. With Microsoft pushing development on the platform aggressively, KeyLimeTie is seeing more opportunity to reach customers on this intuitive platform that is a natural extension of the team's .NET development capabilities.

Need Windows Phone Development?

If you are interested in your own Windows Phone app, please contact KeyLimeTie at 630.598.9000 or sales@keylimetie.com. Follow us on Twitter at @KeyLimeTie.

Chris Grove, CTO

KeyLimeTie CTO Chris Grove served as a panelist this past month at the Mobile Visionary Roundtable for the Illinois Technology Association.  The roundtable focused on "cross-platform" app development, or developing apps for multiple operating systems including iPhone, Android, Windows, BlackBerry and others.

In today's mobile ecosystem, developers have the option of developiong either "natively," (in the specific development environment and language for the corresponding poatform), or using a cross-platform development environment where the app is written in a single codebase and compiled for each target operating system.  Both have their advantages, and the choice comes down to how suited the type of app being developed is for each.  Cross-platform environments are best suited for simple apps and apps that have an entirely customized user interface and do not rely on the phone's built-in user interface components.  Conversely, apps that use deeper features of the phones/OSes might require coding in the native environment.

Another possibility when considering developing for cross-platform use is to create a native app or a mobile website.  This decision comes down to use case.  It's worth noting that native apps are six times more popular on the iPhone than mobile websites, but less popular on tablets, according to this ReadWriteWeb article.

The bottom line here is that mobile sites have different use cases than native apps.  Apps are stronger when it's necessary to use native features of the phone (such as the camera, location services, accelerometer, or light), where websites shine when it's more important that the user find the information they need quickly and efficiently.

Cross-Platform applications have inherent risks.  First and foremost, by nature the developer becomes dependent on the vendor that created the specific cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE).  With iPhone developers already undertaking risk of an app tied to Apple's ever-changing rules and control over the App Store, for some, adding risk to a new vendor in a fast-moving marketplace constitutes unnecessarily high risk.  Roundtable participants drew parallels between cross-platform app development today and the choice to develop in Java vs. HTML/JavaScript on the web in the late 1990s.  At the time, companies poured resources into the cross-platform environments of the day, while as the web evolved, only a couple survived.  Before investing in a cross-platform envirionment, it's important to evaluate where the vendor is likely to be three to five years out.

Finally, with cross-platform development, there's always the added cost of additional project management.  "The more platforms an app will support," adds Grove, "the more groundwork you have to lay, and the more emphasis you have to put on quality assurance."  Each additional platform adds a level of complexity; user interfaces are different, some devices have physical buttons where others have touch screens, and some have standard navigation elements.

Interested in your own mobile app?

If you are interested in developing an app, or extending an app you already have to multiple platforms to reach a wider range of users, contact KeyLimeTie at 630.598.9000 or sales@keylimetie.com.

As a Senior Software Developer at KeyLimeTie, my day-to-day work requires me to focus on some very technical issues. A typical day may include creating a REST web service, optimizing software for thread-safety and performance, or even critiquing open-source frameworks. Although these technical challenges are satisfying, I never really need to tap into my right-brain skills which include extensive graphic arts and music experience.

In my free time I enjoy merging these technical and artistic sides and my latest project is the iPhone game I’ve branded as "Twisted Maestro." This easy to learn game presents a player with a piano-like device used for testing finger dexterity and visual acuity.

Gameplay Approach

When deciding how to model the gameplay of Twisted Maestro, I first had to acknowledge that I don’t fall into the target demographic of many of today’s popular games. I frequented video arcades during the early 80’s, but over time I’ve very much drifted away from being a gamer. I evaluated recent games and found those which require unusual dexterity and movements were not very satisfying for me. So I consciously decided to take the Zen approach of "Beginner’s Mind" and disregard any presuppositions I may have about the latest gaming trends. I wanted to make a game that was attractive for its simplicity, one that was visually stunning and was appealing for its difficulty and physical challenge.

Twisted Maestro early concept wireframes.

Design Strategies

Typically, the UX and navigation patterns of handheld games don’t follow the same guidelines as a professional business app would, designers take liberties to do whatever they can to create unique interfaces. Contrary to this trend, I wanted to follow the Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) as much as I could without sacrificing creative design. For example, since the upper left corner is the sacred location for the Back button of navigation, this is where I placed the Audition button which leads back towards the keyboard home screen for performing an audition.

Another aspect I thought to be important was to target the physical needs of as many people as I could. When performing an audition on Twisted Maestro, knowing the amount of time remaining is important to get the best performance. Recognizing that the majority of the population is right-handed, I placed the time indicator where it would be least obstructed for viewing by a right-handed player. A physical limitation I also wanted to address was that of color-blindness. Original prototypes arbitrarily used green and red for gameplay indicators, but I later changed these in order to respect players with red-green color-blindness, the most common case, and give them a better experience.

Realistic-looking, oversized keyboard.

I wanted the overall graphic design of the game to be realistic and seem like you could actually be holding the auditioning device. I tested different sizes for the buttons and found that using a larger button gave the perception of a larger, more realistic device. Also contributing toward this realism are very high-resolution graphics, textures with intentionally aged effects, as well as keyboard audio recorded in a professional studio.

Gameplay Tuning

The difficulty of each level and the scoring algorithm were not easy to determine and took many iterations to get correct. In order to find proper values, I gained feedback from a wide array of testers ranging from preschoolers to teenagers to senior citizens. I needed the game to be rewarding for younger and less nimble players, but also be appropriately difficult for the more advanced gamers. I find the ultimate compliment to be when a player wants to play the game “just one more time”.

Conclusion

Creating the Twisted Maestro game proved to be very challenging in many ways. I spent most of my development time in two areas - fine-tuning the gameplay and scoring algorithms, and refining graphics to give the perception of realism. The final game has been getting great reviews worldwide and I owe its success to the many testers who contributed their honest feedback during development iterations.

I enjoy my role here at KeyLimeTie and I certainly don’t strive to be a professional game developer, but this personal experience has been extremely rewarding and I’m anxious to leverage what I've learned for a KeyLimeTie customer project.

Download Twisted Maestro on the App Store

Twisted Maestro is compatible with iPhone, iTouch, and iPad Visit www.twistedmaestro.com or download from the App Store.

Interested in Your Own Mobile App?

If you are interested in putting the skills of developers like Patrick to use developing a mobile app for your company, please contact KeyLimeTie at 630.598.9000 or sales@keylimetie.com. Follow us on Twitter at @KeyLimeTie.

QR Codes on Best Buy price tags.

QR Codes are becoming more and more visible in the world around us. For example, Best Buy now features them on all of their price tags, linking the physical product to the product's page on their mobile website. Scan the tag and you can view product specs, pricing information, compare with other products or share with friends.

Links to mobile product pages via QR Codes aid your customer's decision-making process. Savvy consumers want more information at their fingertips so they can make an educated buying decision. Offering a mobile product page could mean the difference between someone leaving your store and comparing elsewhere, or purchasing the item then and there.

Note that mobile web pages prioritize information differently than desktop webpages. Mobile web users have shorter attention spans as they seek information while on the go. Mobile screens are tiny, making traditional three-column desktop web designs cumbersome to browse and navigate. Connection speeds are slow and are occasionally interrupted, and the user has little control over their environment. Mobile users are most often focused on a single task and are not multitasking like they do on desktops or laptops.

A Best Buy mobile product page.

An awkward Comparison screen.

How Best Buy Can Improve

Best Buy tries to get the mobile browsing experience right with product comparisons, but forces too many steps to make it practical. The Compare button takes you to a page displaying your product in one column opposite a column instructing you to search or browse for a product with which to compare. Browsing the site's hierarchy takes 4-5 clicks to approach a similar product, and the user can't be faulted for not knowing the proper search terms. Instead, the website should be intelligent enough to display similar products, allowing for a one-click selection to a competitive product. The lesson here? Help your users accomplish their goals quicker.

Making Your Mobile Web Pages Useful

Approach mobile web pages with the desire to only display the most relevant, timely information. Your users are looking for a specific outcome based upon the context of their visit. In the case of Best Buy, users are looking for product information, comparison data, or even to price compare on competitors' websites. Don't be afraid of the comparison, they're in your store and ready to buy. Facilitating competitive comparisons may be touchy, but by letting the customer be in control you're building loyalty and trust.

Tying QR Into Mobile Web

If context is king on the mobile web, you can control the context by driving visitors via a QR code. Place QR codes within specific offers and messages, and you set your customer's expectations from the start. Now you have a good idea of when and where the user will visit your page. Here are a few practical applications, with examples of how the code can be used:

Have a use for a mobile website or integrated QR codes?

If this article sparks your interest and you see a need for mobile landing pages and QR codes for your company, give us a call at 630.598.9000. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

PartsTown approached KeyLimeTie with a unique idea for a mobile app, and we were pleased to take the concept to reality. PartsTown sells restaurant parts. They stock tens of thousands of parts from hundreds of manufacturers, and turn orders around quickly so the restaurants they serve can get back to running full speed.

PartsTown chose to take the most popular feature on their website, "Find Equipment Manuals", and turn it into a mobile app. The web feature receives tens of thousands of hits monthly, and now anyone with an iPhone or Android phone can download over 15,000 parts diagrams and manuals for free, saving paper and getting repair professionals the information they need while in the field.

Restaurant equipment repair professionals deal with thousands of different pieces of equipment as they go throughout their jobs. When assigned to fix a broken unit, they'll need to look up the part, order a replacement and read the manual for how to fix it. It's impractical for repair professionals to carry with them all the manuals they need, and they can't always count on the restaurant to keep the manuals.

Rather than simply seeking to extend their brand with an app, the PartsTown Find Equipment Manuals app is truly useful to their their customers.

Download the iPhone version or Android version now.

Need an app for your company?

We're happy to discuss how you can use a mobile app to help boost your brand, increase productivity or shave cost. Give us a call at 630.598.9000, and make sure to follow KeyLimeTie on Twitter.

Last week, Google announced Voice Actions for Android, a robust set of voice commands that allow you to do anything from write a text message, begin navigating to a map location, retrieve directory listings or send an email. For the phone platform known for feature-richness, this is a leap forward for users.

Watch Google's video on Voice Actions:

How well does it work?

This third-party test drive praises the complexity of the appliation but notes it's still lacking in the field. The test of usefulness here is the speed and convenience to complete the desired (often routine) task. If it ends up taking less time to manually complete the task, or if you have to switch to manual to choose between search options, the practicality of the feature diminishes.

It's cool, but when will it catch on?

Google prides itself at releasing features the iPhone doesn't yet have. It's no surprise Voice Actions has more commands than Voice Control on the iPhone, a feature I use almost daily to place calls. Like the Android test drive link above, the iPhone feature has some humorous inaccuracies, however for dialing, voice activation is accurate for 80-90% of the people I call. However, just this weekend I get the sense voice commands haven't yet caught traction. The other day I was driving a car full of techies on the bleeding edge who chuckled when they heard me talking to my phone to make a call.

Have you used this feature on the Android phone yet? If so, tell us about it!

In an O'Reilly Radar report, mobile evangelist Jason Grigsby (@grigs) captures two mobile trends that might be surprising. Much unlike the desktop market, which has long been dominated by Windows with MacOS running a distant second, mobile devices are seeing increased fragmentation in operating systems. At the same time, web standards are bringing mobile web browsers closer together in similarity.

What does this mean to you?

Assuming you're either an enterprise IT manager, mobile marketer or small business owner looking at opportunities to communicate and connect via mobile, what does this mean for you? It will be increasingly difficult to reach a majority of your audience by building a native application (mobile app) for just one operating system. You'll have a much better time making content widely available if you embrace the mobile web. However, if you require an app for whatever reason, you'll be smart to target your platforms based on your most loyal and most profitable audience(s). There are smart ways to go about building apps and successes to be had if you give the process careful thought.

Just the Facts

Here are a few highlights from the article to give further detail. However, I encourage you to read the full article with many more facts and figures.

Grigsby compiled mobile OS stats since 2006, noting that "In 2006, two mobile operating systems controlled 81 percent of the market. This year there are 10 different smartphone operating systems". Further observations include the facts that:

• No single mobile OS has greater than 50% marketshare.
• Samsung will be releasing its own OS and HTC is considering producing its own. Grigsby cites reasons to take these OSes seriously based on the manufacturers' marketshare.
• Android OS has been fragmented across handset manufacturers as several have overlayed their own user interfaces (MotoBlur and Sense UI).

While operating systems diverge, the report continues to outline how the mobile web is converging on HTML5 and WebKit. The only mobile browser that won't support HTML5 and WebKit for now is Internet Explorer, though indications show that future versions of the mobile IE will also support it.

For complete analysis, read Jason Grigsby's article at O'Reilly Radar.

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