Globalising mobile apps is a challenging strategy in view of
regional variations
Companies needing to create mobile applications for international
use face many problems. Regional variations in IT, business
practices and culture mean they should favour simple technology and
sacrifice range for usability.
As mobile and wireless applications become more common,
organisations are starting to consider multinational mobility. Do
conventional globalisation techniques apply to mobile applications,
and what other challenges does the combination of mobility and
globalisation pose?
From a technical perspective, it is certainly possible to develop
internationalised mobile applications. Key client platforms, such
as Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), Symbian and Pocket PC, provide some
technical support but there are many challenges beyond simply
developing globalised code.
Many aspects of mobile and wireless technology vary by region. Take
cellular networks. About 75% of the world uses GSM, 15% uses
variants of code division multiple access and 10% uses other
technologies. Many regions use more than one technology and every
technology has different performance characteristics.
To further complicate the issue, the roll-out of new technology
such as 3G is proceeding at different rates in different countries.
Consequently, network performance and quality of service can vary,
even within a single country.
There are also regional variations in interfaces to network
features such as messaging and location services. Furthermore, some
territories have excellent network coverage - serving 99% of their
country's population - but this is not universal. For example,
coverage in the US is strong in metropolitan areas, but patchy in
the countryside.
One operator seldom provides the best coverage for an entire
country, let alone across a continent. This causes architectural
conflicts. A region with excellent coverage might need a thin
client application, whereas a region with poor coverage might
require the extra complexity of a thick client architecture capable
of autonomous operation outside network coverage.
And some operators may not provide the technical features, such as
location services or generic IP access, that applications may
demand. Some services, such as downloading apps onto handsets, are
controlled by operators and will have different policies and
pricing in different regions.
Wi-Fi hotspots are a useful technology, but international
availability is patchy and roaming agreements are still
incomplete.
There is also the problem of device diversity. There are more than
300 brands of handset available in Europe, which vary widely in
performance and firmware and pose major challenges in terms of
porting and support.
In other territories, the primary and sometimes only source of
devices such as handsets and personal digital assistants is the
network operators. This may constrain the selection of devices or
force unwanted application diversity between territories.
The main consequence is that developers of multinational mobile
applications must satisfy a more complex and diverse set of
requirements than those operating in a single locale.
The economics of a mobile application may be sensitive to telecoms
pricing. For example, some applications demand flat-rate data,
which is not available everywhere. Even large, multinational
operators have not yet fully integrated their services, so they
cannot offer a unified pricing model. Costs for data applications
can rise dramatically when roaming.
Some operators require applications deployed on phone handsets to
be certified and signed. Such schemes can be regionally fragmented,
although initiatives such as Symbian Signed may provide a basis for
global schemes on some platforms.
Return on investment for mobile applications tends to involve
factors such as travelling times and the cost of labour, which vary
by region. The prevalence of commuting, and other social factors,
may affect the demand for services such as mobile e-mail.
Legal requirements and working practice agreements vary
substantially between nations. These may affect where an
application can be used, the security required for personal
information stored on mobile devices and the uses to which
information, such as handset location, can be put.
It is not uncommon for mobile application deployments to fail for
social and working practice reasons. Application design and
development practices must take account of these issues, which vary
across the world.
Internationalisation is complicated by national variations in
mobile technology and working practices, which increase risk and
cost. Mobile and wireless applications and devices are likely to
have a relatively short lifespan, so organisations should demand a
return on their investment in under 24 months. Furthermore, the
short iterative development cycles that benefit mobile projects may
be unsuited to complex multinational projects.
Nick Jones is a vice- president in Gartner Research and a
Gartner research fellow