Another interesting article from MIT Technology Review. This time, the theme is Mobile application fragmentation. Curiously, they focused the problem under the prism of a new technology presented by a new start-up named Skyward. APX, Skyward’s new product (I refuse to call it technology), allows low-end phones to access advanced features. The product is a JAVA based application framework that allows to create small applications with a strong server component hosted by Skyward. In other words, Widgets.
I agree with the fact that mobile fragmentation is a tough problem, but solutions like this only make it worst. Nokia has already presented their own Widget platform, also based in Java and named Widsets. Obviously, its only available for Nokia devices. Apple has focused iPhone’s application development in Safari browser, under the form of Web-based applications. Opera also has its own platform. The question is: Are they compatible? Can they interoperate? Do this initiatives solve fragmentation? The answer is not.
This article has a strong component of advertisement. Surprising, coming from MIT.
