openAdmin
08-15-2009, 01:04 AM
A panel at the OpenSource World conference (http://www.opensourceworld.com/)in San Francisco, debated Thursday over how to tackle mobile device fragmentation, which has led to a multitude of software platforms - Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, further compounded by the variety of hand sets of different makes. While open source, they argued boosts software development, how do developers settle on one platform to build their applications on?
"I absolutely believe that a framework is the way to go," to build software that can work on multiple devices," said Adam Blum, CEO of Rhomobile, which provides the Rhodes (http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/rhodes-unifies-smartphone-app-dev-787) open source framework for building applications for major smartphone operating systems.
Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, which offers open source cloud services for mobile phones, countered that Web development staples like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS provide the surest path to application portability. "The only way forward to me is a Web platform," Capobianco said. An application layer will surface allowing a developer to build a mobile application based on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript," he said.
Blum retorted, "The [point] I disagree with is the idea that somehow it all becomes the Web." The Rhodes framework and the Titanium framework offered by Appcelerator (http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/appcelerator-enables-iphone-android-app-dev-655), which also was represented on the panel, "both leverage the Web in major ways”
Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie foresaw even more fragmentation on the way in the mobile space. "Personally, I believe that [Google's] Android is going to fragment as well," Haynie said. “Carriers like Android because it is open source and can add their own customizations to it”.
"That's the awful reality for developers," said Haynie.
"I would like to see more of Symbian and Android and other companies that want to be open source really do everything that's necessary," Blum said.
"It's becoming more and more [a reality] that open source will be part of the mobile platform much like it's been part of the Web platform," said Haynie.
The session ended with the consensus that Open source was a catalyst in software and community development in the mobile arena . Guess there was nothing more to say.:D
Source: thestandard.com
"I absolutely believe that a framework is the way to go," to build software that can work on multiple devices," said Adam Blum, CEO of Rhomobile, which provides the Rhodes (http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/rhodes-unifies-smartphone-app-dev-787) open source framework for building applications for major smartphone operating systems.
Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, which offers open source cloud services for mobile phones, countered that Web development staples like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS provide the surest path to application portability. "The only way forward to me is a Web platform," Capobianco said. An application layer will surface allowing a developer to build a mobile application based on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript," he said.
Blum retorted, "The [point] I disagree with is the idea that somehow it all becomes the Web." The Rhodes framework and the Titanium framework offered by Appcelerator (http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/appcelerator-enables-iphone-android-app-dev-655), which also was represented on the panel, "both leverage the Web in major ways”
Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie foresaw even more fragmentation on the way in the mobile space. "Personally, I believe that [Google's] Android is going to fragment as well," Haynie said. “Carriers like Android because it is open source and can add their own customizations to it”.
"That's the awful reality for developers," said Haynie.
"I would like to see more of Symbian and Android and other companies that want to be open source really do everything that's necessary," Blum said.
"It's becoming more and more [a reality] that open source will be part of the mobile platform much like it's been part of the Web platform," said Haynie.
The session ended with the consensus that Open source was a catalyst in software and community development in the mobile arena . Guess there was nothing more to say.:D
Source: thestandard.com