slides of a presentation about cross-platform mobile app development I gave at MobileTechCon 2010 in Mainz (Germany). Links and additional information on the related blog post at http://HeikoBehrens.net/2010/10/11/cross-platform-app-development-for-iphone-android-co-—-a-comparison-i-presented-at-mobiletechcon-2010/

1. Heiko Behrens | itemis AG
Plattformübergreifende
App-Entwicklung – ein Vergleich

3. eBay aims for $1.5 billion in mobile sales in 2010
internet retailer, Q1 2010
mobile download revenue exceeded
$29.5 billion by 2013
Gartner, Q2 2010
07/Q2 07/Q4 08/Q2 08/Q4 09/Q2 09/Q4 10/Q2 10/Q4

4. I want an iPhone App !

5. diversity of platforms

6. 94 App Stores

7. two categories

8. How can we address
this diversity?

9. You can write amazing web apps
that look exactly and behave
exactly like apps on the iPhone
Steve Jobs, WWDC 2007

10. WEB APPS

13. demo

14. apple.com/webapps
openappmkt.com

15. what’s that
native thing?

16. demo

17. Unreal Tech Demo
demo

18. <div class=”light”></div>
<div id=”floor” class=”reflection”></div>

19. the User’s perspective
on Apps

20. Experience

21. pre-installed downloaded online
native website
W3C widget
hybrid
interpreted
generated

22. web apps

23. HTML5
cache manifest, local storage, forms, geo location
CSS3
animation, transitions, 3D transformation
Resolution
css media queries, reference, categories, float layout
URLs
mails, telephone, sms, maps, youtube, etc.

24. Web Frameworks
iWebKit, iUI, jQTouch
Sencha Touch
2010 Q4: JQuery mobile framework

25. Sencha Touch
MIT License GPL Dual License
declarative + JQuery programmatically
focus on iPhone aims at cross platform
simple complex
See also iWebKit, iUI, jQTouch, JQuery Mobile (2010 Q3)

26. development easy
effort known technology + processes
monetization bad for user experience
experience fancy UI possible, but platform specific
hardware very limited
offline generally possible

27. hybrid apps

28. Request Interception
demo

29. MIT License
See also QuickConnect, Big5 (discontinued)

30. development as with web
effort known technology + processes
monetization app stores
experience as with web
hardware mostly accessible
offline as with web

31. interpreted apps

32. – HTML & CSS =

33. Apache 2 License
JS programmatically
native controls
iPhone, iPad, Android
BlackBerry (soon)

34. demo

35. MonoTouch Rhodes
starts at 399 USD MIT License
.net runtime ruby C/S on the device
iOS only iPhone, Windows Mobile 6,
BlackBerry, Symbian and
Android

36. Screen Flow Interpreters
The aim of XXX is to screen the programmer
completely out from the mobile platform itself,
and transfer the entire application logic to
central application server level.

37. development heavy API, but only once
effort barely any tooling
monetization app stores
experience native
hardware mostly accessible
offline native

38. generated apps

39. XMLVM — A CrossCompiler

40. Java (input)
public class HelloWorld
{
static public void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello World");
}
}

41. XML (model)
<vm:xmlvm xmlns:vm="http://xmlvm.org"
xmlns:jvm="http://xmlvm.org/jvm">
<vm:class name="HelloWorld" extends="java.lang.Object">
<vm:method name="main" isPublic="true" isStatic="true"
stack="2" locals="1">
<vm:signature>
<vm:return type="void" />
<vm:parameter type="java.lang.String[]" />
</vm:signature>
<vm:code>
<jvm:var name="args" id="0" type="java.lang.String[]" />
<jvm:getstatic class-type="java.lang.System"
type="java.io.PrintStream" field="out" />
<jvm:ldc type="java.lang.String" value="Hello World" />
<jvm:invokevirtual class-type="java.io.PrintStream"
method="println">
<vm:signature>
<vm:return type="void" />
<vm:parameter type="java.lang.String" />
</vm:signature>
</jvm:invokevirtual>
<jvm:return />
</vm:code>
</vm:method>
</vm:class>
</vm:xmlvm>

42. XSLT (generator)
<xsl:template match="jvm:irem">
<xsl:text>
_op2.i = _stack[--_sp].i; // Pop operand 1
_op1.i = _stack[--_sp].i; // Pop operand 2
_stack[_sp++].i = _op1.i % _op2.i; // Push remainder
</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>
typedef union {
id o;
int i;
float f;
double d;
} XMLVMElem;

43. Output
+ (void) main___java_lang_String_ARRAYTYPE :(NSMutableArray*)n1
{
XMLVMElem _stack[2];
XMLVMElem _locals[1];
int _sp = 0;
XMLVMElem _op1, _op2, _op3;
int _i;
for (_i = 0; _i <1; _i++) _locals[_i].o = nil;
NSAutoreleasePool* _pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
_locals[0].o = n1;
_op1.o = [java_lang_System _GET_STATIC_java_lang_System_out];
_stack[_sp++].o = _op1.o;
_stack[_sp++].o = @"Hello World";
_sp -= 2;
[((java_io_PrintStream*) _stack[_sp].o)
println___java_lang_String:_stack[_sp + 1].o];
[_pool release];
return;
}

44. custom solution
«Xpand»

45. own generator
for Mobile Apps

47. demo

48. development huge one-time invest
effort easy for aimed cases, easy to extend
monetization app stores
experience native
hardware native
offline native

49. cross platform ?

50. web hybrid interpreted generated
development
effort
monetization
experience
hardware
offline

51. another
perspective

52. native
own language
own culture
own ecosystem
field skills
promotion: watch avatar - the movie!

53. not-so-native
economic objectives
establishment
“natives are endangered”
promotion: watch avatar - the movie

54. twitter @HBehrens
blog http://HeikoBehrens.net
mail Heiko.Behrens@itemis.de
xing http://www.xing.com/profile/Heiko_Behrens
linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeikoBehrens