Mobile clients development

We offer professional mobile phone application development, porting, analyzing and IT consulting services. Our mobile phone developers are skilled and experienced in a multitude of mobile platforms and solutions. Our unique expertise can be matched by few companies in the region and together with server development we can provide complete solutions for enterprises.

We master the following mobile phone platforms

• iOS
• Android
• Windows Phone
• BlackBerry
• Symbian
• Java ME
• MeeGo
• Cross-platform development

iOS

In past years, the phenomenon of iPhone and iPad was the reason why society has completely changed its view of use of mobile devices. The current boom of the Internet store, App Store, shows huge public interest in mobile applications. In March 2012, number of applications downloaded from App Store exceeded 25 billion.

If you aim to devices like iPhone, iPod, or iPad, you will need development for the iOS operation system. The iOS operation system is based on Apple technologies and ecosystem, which include the programming language Objective-C, their own system Cocoa Touch framework, integrated development environment (IDE) XCode, based on Mac OS X, and other tools for developers.

However, the iOS ecosystem has, and we are used to that for Apple, its particulars the knowledge of which is crucial for development. We provide such knowledge, built on many years’ experience in development for iOS.

If you want to create an application for a simple, safe and stable platform, which is “in” at the same time, choose iOS.

Android

Android is a Linux-based platform, maintained by Open Handset Alliance, which is a trust of hardware, software and telecommunication companies.

The Android platform enables developers to write code in Java language. Although Android does not use the firmly set java standards (e.g. Java SE and ME), java-based development means that the platform is open for huge number of developers. The operation system Android uses Dalvik Virtual Machine with a set of instructions based on registry and with its own byte code. To develop applications, the developers use Google-developed java libraries called Application Framework API.

In Mautilus, we have long-term experience in java development. Thanks to that, we were able to get on the Android board as one of the first, and now we are ready to supply complex applications for Android with effective graphic interface.

Android has a huge community of developers who have focused on the Java programming language. And the Java language was also the reason why this open system gained enormous popularity and why it takes the dominant position in the market.

Android is an open platform that offers huge possibilities which are sometimes at the expense of safety, though. Despite, thanks to its possibilities and price strategy of the manufacturers, it is a sought-after platform for enterprise use.

Windows Phone

Windows Phone is a mobile operation system developed by Microsoft as the successor of the operation system Windows Mobile. Together with the new operation system, Microsoft has also brought the new controlling using tiles (called Metro previously).

In 2011, Nokia chose Windows Phone as its main platform; however, despite significant expectations, it was not able to increase market share of Windows Phone. And Microsoft brought the tiles to Windows 8, too, and in the autumn 2012, Microsoft introduces the first tablet with OS Windows, which is again expected by the market to change the trends.

The operation system of Windows Phone platform is historically C#, to which the option of development in Javascript was added. Unlike the operation systems Android and iOS, the operation system Windows Phone is not used in the environment of tablets, where the operation system Windows is used.

Windows Phone is still a very perspective platform, which has much to offer. On the one hand, it is interesting and original design; on the other hand it is connectivity to Microsoft technologies designed for enterprise environment.

BlackBerry

BlackBerry devices have been based on proprietary multi-tasking operation system developed by RIM. In July 2012, RIM announced the new OS 7, to be the successor of OS 5. The applications that were created for OS5, however, cannot be opened in OS7, which might be a problem if you decide to create your application for BlackBerry, too.

The advantage of BlackBerry is so-called BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which, among others, allows remote administration of applications on telephones and, thus puts a strong tool in the hands of corporate administrators.

BlackBerry is an interesting system, which was enormously popular then, and despite its market share has fallen down, it is still the number-one platform in a certain group of users.

Symbian

Symbian, once being famous and widespread, is an open source operation system, which was designed especially for mobile devices and which is maintained by Accenture.

We got to Symbian many years ago, at the time of its first version 6.0 (ER6). We remember the time of Nokia 9210 and the first smartphone Nokia 7650. We had worked on the Symbian operation system for several years before it was transformed into Symbian Foundation. Our developers actively contributed to Nokia Forum and Symbian Foundation project for many years.

If we are talking about market share of the operation systems deployed in all the devices used, not only in the new ones, Symbian will the number-one operation system despite great success of Android and iOS. Nevertheless, conventions and behavior of users of such older operation systems are conservative and deployment of applications for such a platform is limited.

The last version of Symbian, fully supporting touch displays, is Symbian^3, followed by updates of Anna and Nokia Belle.

Java ME

Java ME (Java Micro Edition, formerly J2ME) is the Java platform designed for mobile devices and embedded systems, designed by Sun Microsystems, which is Oracle, now.

The Java enthusiasts at Mautilus have always been keen on all Java editions: Java SE, Java EE and Java ME. We have, for instance, developed Java ME applications using the NFC technology.

Java ME is used e.g. in Nokia phones of S40 series, which are bestsellers for example in the market of Southeast Asia.

MeeGo

MeeGo is a Linux-based operation system, which was developed as a joint-venture of Nokia and Intel. This operation system has been deployed in Nokia N9 and N950 devices. The MeeGo project was officially finished in August 2011; however, it is continued in distribution called Mer, which is a new Linux-based operation system designed for smartphones, tablets and other electronics. A Finnish start-up, Jolla Mobile, announced in July 2012 that they worked on a new smartphone with OS Mer.

Cross platform mobile development

Cross-platform development reduces costs for development of applications that are designed for multiple devices.

At the present time, applications for mobile devices are mainly developed in two ways. The first one is called native, and the applications are developed for a specific platform such as Android or iOS. The reward for that is perfect user experience, and the disadvantage is the fact that it is necessary to develop applications separately for each platform. Another option is to deploy tools for cross-platform development, to develop the application just once, and to adopt that for each platform in the end. The advantage is the price of initial development and maintenance; the disadvantage is primarily incomplete use of the device potential and possible problems with rate of the application. In rotations at low-end slow phones, the application may cause numerous problems, which you can detect only during the development, or when the users start to report problems with devices, on which you could not test the application properly.

There is a wide range of tools that are used for cross-platform development; and Sencha Touch and jQuery Mobile are well-known tools for mobile development in HTML5 and PhoneGap by Adobe, which will use such “mobile websites” to create an application, which has its own icon and looks like a usual application. Such tools allow using e.g. GPS or Push notifications which were only possible for the native approach before.

Cross-platform development is on the rise and at the present time it finally reached the point when we may declare that it is applicable to the commercial sphere. However, if you plan a “top class” application which shall make full use of mobile device potential, prefer the native way then.

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Do you need to create a solution based on mobile devices for your business, but you feel confused and lost in the number of various mobile platforms? Which is the cheapest one? Which is the fastest one? Which could be started fastest? Contact us!