Who You Calling A Jesse?

How can you explain the state of mobile development (both web based on device installed) to non-mobile folks that are use to a windows dominated world that makes ‘adjustments’ for Mac from time to time? Here are my basic assumptions:

• CDMA devices are in some walled garden most of the time.
• Carriers don’t want to be a service provider, they want to control and profit from the whole experience.
• Long term contracts from carriers in North America slow down new device uptake.
• GSM devices are common and low barrier targets.
• Software on phones is rarely updated.
• No device is ‘easy’ to develop for, in fact most are like putting together an entire house worth of Ikea furniture along with all the little things.
• Mobile browsers suck.
• Microsoft doesn’t yet get mobile, but it will.
• RIM changed the game (with email, utility, service) but forgot about changing the rules.
• Apple changed the game further and re-wrote the rules (utility, Application store, touch it).

From those assumptions I am still at the same place I was over a year ago: supporting ‘all devices’ with regards to mobile development is not practical in North America. This includes mobile focused web sites and device installed applications. That isn’t to say there isn’t a market worth going after. Apple gives you access to a lot of people through it’s App store and you can target their browser easy enough. You can target Blackberry as well and if you target both I think you will hit a pretty good market.

The trick in my mind is defining where the market is. What developers need is good (unbiased, up-to-date) research on who is using what devices for what. Not because mobile developers don’t know their audience but because their paying clients, understandably, deserve some real numbers to decide what they need.

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in a meeting between a local mobile start-up and a mobile marketing start-up based out of Toronto. A major chunk of the meeting was spent discussing the various issues of platform and carrier issues.

The marketing group have a client that wants an app on ‘all phones’ – Bell, Telus, Fido, Rogers – but the local start-up can not justify the resources nor can they even think they could support all devices. The client wants to support all phones not because it thinks that is where their target market is but because they don’t know what devices their target market uses. If they new it would be easier for everyone.

This leaves me wondering… is it even possible to collect accurate information on device usage? Is it easier to just target the iPhone since they have data plans and are more likely to have users that want to try out stuff?

Not that long ago Rogers/Fido announced their iPhone data packages. They started at 400MB and went up to 2GB for $60-$115. The really stupid part is the SMS packages with 75-300 in the range of packages… but the data is where the consumers focused their rage. In response a $30 for 6GB promotional rate was offered to tack on your current plan so I got one.

What I did this past week was try and use 3G as much as I could but not over the top. Really I just avoided the campus wifi and only used wifi at home, 3G everywhere else. I used Google maps a lot, email, downloaded apps (not many though), and used the web browser to constantly check stuff. In one week I used:

• 1.8MB sent
• 34.7MB recieved

That means if my first week is close to an average week I will probably just top 150MB in the month. Certainly I will try and use more ;) However, I think the original pricing Rogers offered was based on research and purely designed to discourage tethering. But I don’t get why they just didn’t offer unlimited plans. What a missed opportunity to be loved. It’s not like anyone but a few people will try and tether their iPhone to their laptop for a connection.

For the next few weeks I will try and use video more… but the other side of this is that heavy data usage kills your battery (as it does with your laptop). If I leave the iPhone as a ‘phone with benefits’ the battery could probably last days. If I use it as an online entertainment device the battery lasts 8-10 hours.

Addison (my son) had his 9-month visit to the doctor this past week. All things are good, he is developing quickly, healthy, etc. But when referencing the baby height/weight chart the nurse found he was 25th percentile in weight, 75th or so in height. Concerned for his weight meant a friendly lecture from the nurse and an order to increase the fat in Addison’s diet. Keep in mind, this kid has more energy than anything I have ever seen. If he is awake he is moving and/or making noise.

So my wife comes home, thinks about it, and then last night found a paper explaining the chart our doctor’s office uses. As it turns out the research they use is from one town in the mid-west US and has bottle fed babies. Breast fed babies deviate significantly and negatively, especially those from other parts of the world. So the chart’s data source is flawed yet modern nurses and doctors follow it.

I wonder where the obesity problem starts? ;) Lesson of the day, if you are handed facts and you are not comfortable with them always do a little research. The web is really handy for that.