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Mobile Development SDK Handbook

Sun, 12/07/2008 - 05:12 — admin

With the development of hardware accelerated 3D graphics, an integrated database API, tightly integrated performance monitoring tools, and a highly specialized version of the OS, now the mobile devices are much more powerful than before, some are even more powerful than desktop machines 5-8 years ago. It is a un-turnaround trend that more and more applications will be migrated from current desktop/mainframe boxes to mobile devices. Following is a comparison among several mainstream mobile devices DEV SDK, no one knows who will be the winner in this keen competitive mobile development market. Apple, Goolge, Symbian or Microsoft? No one knows!

 

  Apple iPhone SDK Windows Mobile S60 Android
Cost
 		 Free Free; could be more depending on tools used Free; could be more depending on tools used Free
Wide-scale app availability
 		 June Now Now Depends on device availability
Native development
 		 Yes
 		 Yes Yes Yes
Languages suppoted for native development
 		 Objective-C C++, C#, VB.NET
 		 C++ Java
Digital certificates
 		 Required for distribution Available, required for some phones Available, required for some phones No
Retail support
 		 Full; 30 percent Apple revenue share; free apps allowable Limited Limited No, but Android Developer Challenge offers money and publicity
Platform maturity
 		 Immature Mature Mature Immature
First-party support
 		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Community support
 		 Just getting started!
 		 Excellent Excellent Excellent
App installation method
 		 Direct (App Store), iTunes Direct, ActiveSync Direct, PC Suite Unknown; installation on emulator is not reflective of production devices
Emulator available
 		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Remote debugging
 		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Target device variety
 		 Poor Excellent Good Poor (that will change, though)
Touchscreen support
 		 Multi-touch
 		 Single touch Umm... soon? Single touch
App availability and variety
 		 Poor (that will change, though) Excellent Excellent Poor (that will change, though)
Underlying architecture
 		 Cocoa Touch / Mac OS X
 		 Windows Symbian Linux
Flash availability
 		 No Yes Yes No
Java availability
 		 No Yes Yes Yes