Developing Mobile

Applications
Milenko Petrovic
May 18th, 2005, Toronto
Agenda
 Emerging mobile services
 Limitations of current technology
 Developing mobile applications using
Eximius mBaze framework
 Bookstore service: an example application
Demand Drivers
 Consumer applications
 Communication
 Entertainment

 Enterprise applications
 Collaboration
 Integration
with Personal Information Management
Systems (PIM)
 New application frontiers
 More capable devices open new possibilities
Consumer Applications
 Messaging
 Text messaging is the top data service world wide
 Driven by convenience and simplicity
 Users want more
 Use of picture and video messaging significantly increases data traffic
 Game downloads
 Driven by availability of better devices and increasing familiarity with
mobile internet
 On the phone games are fast, convenient, have nice user interface
 Information Retrieval
 From service provider to users
 Local news/weather/traffic alert subscriptions via text messaging
 From users to service providers
 Surveys, polls, discussions
Enterprise Applications
 In the enterprise PIM is the king
 Dedicated devices such as RIM BlackBerry widely used since they
provide seamless information sharing with the desktop
 Always-on pushed-based communication eliminate the need for
inconvenient synchronization
 Increasingly consumer devices come with similar, low-end, built-in
PIM software
 BUT inconvenient
 Requires synchronization
 Difficult to share information with the desktop
 Closed platform, non-extendable
 HOWEVER, they are programmable
 J2ME, Symbian Platform, Microsoft Compact .NET
 It has become possible to have enterprise PIM functionality on low consumer
devices!
Emerging Applications
 Location Based Services
 Users are already showing interest as
illustrated by increasing use of text message
alerts on local news/weather/traffic reports
 Location information available on increasing
number of devices
 Mobile Payments
 Mobile Ticketing
Mobile application characteristics
 Programmability
 Potential for creating more responsive applications
(combats bad perception left by WAP)
 Critical personal data
 Every application will access personal user profile in some form
 Customizations, preferences, authentication information, personal
information (contacts, tasks, appointments, etc.)
 Mobile payments (credit cards, account information, e-tickets)
 Asynchronous Communication
 Most applications are best described as event-based―core of the
application logic is to react to some external events.
 Aesthetic, convenient user interface
 Applications need pleasing, simple and responsive user interfaces
 Always-on network connectivity
 Almost all applications heavily rely on network connectivity. Integration
of data from the desktop (office, enterprise, school) to mobile device.
Access anytime, anywhere is what increases utility of the mobile
applications.
Agenda
 Emerging mobile services
 Limitation of current technology
 Developing mobile applications using
Eximius mBaze framework
 Bookstore service: an example application
Current Technology
 SMS
 “request-reply” text applications
 WAP
 Web applications
 J2ME
 Java applications
Example Application
 Mobile Payments
Customer

 Access to the Internet

via a mobile device to Provider

buy and sell services

 Examples: mobile Merchant

banking, brokerage
services, bill payments, Credit Card Company

information services
Using SMS
 Insecure
 Cumbersome to use
 Users
need to remember cryptic SMS
commands
 Cannot store credit card information on the
device
 Limited extensibility
 Payment history, merchant incentives, etc.
Using WAP
 Equivalent to web payments
 Slow as pages making up user interface need to
be downloaded for every payment
 Request-reply interaction incompatible with “Bill
notification”
 Limited ability to save information locally
 Extendable
 Can be developed and deployed very quickly
Using J2ME
 Insecure
 HTTP request-reply problem
(same as for WAP)
 Requires considerable software development
 More difficult to deploy
 Simple, intuitive, pleasing user interface possible
 Very extendable
Agenda
 Emerging mobile services
 Limitations of current technology
 Developing mobile applications using
Eximius mBaze framework
 Bookstore service: an example application
 Asynchronous Communication
• Web browsing
• Web search
• Ring tone Downloads

• Text messaging
• Email
• Mobile Ticketing
• Mobile Payments
Using raw J2ME
 Asynchronous communication in J2ME is hard
 J2ME 1.0
 HTTP (request-reply)
 J2ME 2.0 (not widely available yet)
 HTTP
 Incoming connections (low-level asynchronous)
mBaze Advantage
 Asynchronous communication for mobile applications is always better!
(can always be converted to synchronous if need be)
 Results in more responsive user interfaces
 Easier handling of failures (slow network, disconnections)
 For developers: easier to develop on
mobile platform
 Mobile application is a collection of
asynchronous event-handlers

 For users: makes applications simpler

and more convenient
 Networking and Data Access
 Messaging
 File sharing

 Always connected
 Mobile Payments
 Unattended synchronization
 Mobile Ticketing
Using raw J2ME
 Mobile applications are network-centric
 But current network technology is:
 Slow
 High-latency, low-bandwidth
 Slower then “dial-up”
 Expensive
 Users will be less likely to use you application if they have to pay
considerable network traffic costs.
 Network cost varies from user to user depending on the price plan
and network operator.
 Unreliable
 Both J2ME 1.0 and 2.0 provide HTTP over TCP
 HTTP/TCP ≠ reliable
 Disconnections, failed transfers, unreachable destinations
mBaze Advantage
 mBaze makes mobile applications work efficiently using existing
network technology (2G)
 Uses compact data representation and compression
 Replaces expensive and fragile synchronous with asynchronous
communication
 Trades-off on-the-device local storage and processing for network
communication
 Communication layer specifically designed and optimized for resource-
constrained nature of current technologies (both networking and device)
 Uses document (message) -oriented communication for easy integration
with back-end (enterprise) systems
 mBaze provides everything you need to create efficient and usable
network-centric applications over the current network technologies.
Security
Using raw J2ME
 J2ME 1.0:
 No security provisions
 Some phone manufacturers have non-standard
security features
 J2ME 2.0:
 HTTPS
 Digitally
signed applications
 No provisions for encrypting data on the device
mBaze Advantage
 Supports security-critical applications on both J2ME 1.0
and 2.0
 Both PKI and Shared Key schemes are possible.
 Takes advantage of vendor-specific, built-in security
features for enhanced performance and reduced
application size
 Does not rely on built-in security enforcements—those
vary widely between manufacturers; ability to
always encrypt critical data stored on the device.
 Uses privacy-preserving translucent database
User Interface

Applications on small screens can

look good and be convenient
at the same time
Using raw J2ME
 High-level UI components
 Good looking UI across all devices
 Tightly integrated with the application
 Difficult to maintain
 Expensive to extend
 Low-level UI components
 Great looking UI
 Requires a major development effort unrelated to the core
application
 Tightly integrated with the application
mBaze Advantage
 Wide variety of devices and fast-changing
technology warrants separation of user interface
from the application logic.
 mBaze provides clean separation of UI from the
application logic using well known models
 Use high-level or low-level J2ME UI without modifying
the application
 mBaze applications can easily migrated to better
and more advanced UI found in newer devices
Agenda
 Emerging mobile services
 Limitations of current technology
 Developing mobile applications using
Eximius mBaze framework
 Bookstore service: an example application
Developing with mBaze:
Bookstore Service Example
 Simple customizable notification service
(a lá amazon.com)
 Users have a profile on their mobile phone
that stores their book interests.
 Profile can be updated by the users themselves, or by the
bookstore(s) based on purchase patterns for that user
 This increases convenience to the user, as her interests are
determined automatically (she only needs to tweak it if not
satisfied)
 To satisfy privacy requirements, the profile is stored on the mobile
phone, and the user can optionally confirm all profile
updates/views from the bookstore.
Bookstore Service (2):
mBaze Advantage
Extend mBaze asynchronous notification
framework with bookstore business logic

Use mBaze security and privacy features to secure

user profile, which contains personal information, both
on the device and over the network

Follow mBaze framework to ensure separation of user

interface from application logic. Develop user interface
components using J2ME high level API.

Take advantage of mBaze translucent storage to enhance user

privacy and convenience. Store user’s profile both on the network
and on the device.
Bookstore Service (3):
Application Core
 Back-end
 Bookstore client is similar to mobile device
functionality (in fact, it could be a mobile
device)
 Allow bookstore user to send updates to
remote profile, and to send a notification to
all remote users with matching profiles.

 Mobile device
 Allow user to edit profile and to
optionally approve remote
updating/viewing of the profile by a
bookstore.
 Allow user to choose an authentication
method (e.g., password)
 Bookstore Service (4):
The Complete System Title = “Lord of The Rings”
Subject = “Fantasy”
Note = “Collector’s Edition”
Subject = “Fantasy”

User Interface

Bookstore Service back-end

Business Logic application
servers

mBaze Storage Security

framework Communication mBaze Routing
J2ME
Developing Mobile Applications
using mBaze Middleware
 Lower your cost of development
 Almost all web/desktop/enterprise applications are
developed using some framework
 Mobile Apps are the same, don’t reinvent the wheel!

 Advantages of a framework
 The infrastructure is already built for you
 The infrastructure if maintained for you
 You can concentrate on developing your application