2.1 Background Information
2.1.1 Definition – What does Mobile Application (Mobile App) mean?
A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app it is a type of software application designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Most such devices are sold with several apps bundled as pre-installed software, such as a web browser, email client, calendar, mapping program, and an app for buying music or other media or more apps or it's might be a game . It's frequently serve to provide users with similar services to those accessed on PCs. [2]
2.1.2 Mobile application History
The number of mobile application use are continues to rise day by day and there are so many apps that are easy to access and simply make your life so much better as a result And mobile applications have become vital to virtually every aspect of our modern life .
On the other side It's impossible to discuss the history of mobile apps without first looking at the history of mobile phone. The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 4.4 pounds (2 kg).
Mobile application has been on an evolutionary journey since the 1980s and 1990s.
2.1.2.1 Mobile Operating Systems Earlier
A mobile operating system (or mobile OS) is an operating system for smartphones, tablets, PDAs, or other mobile devices. Mobile operating systems combine features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use. Here are some of old Mobile OSs.
1. Psion EPOC
The first mobile application The first recognizable apps came with Psion's that used EPOC , EPOC it is a discontinued family of graphical operating systems developed for portable devices, primarily PDAs. EPOC came from epoch, the beginning of an era, but was back fitted by the engineers to Electronic Piece Of Cheese. It was succeeded by Symbian in 1998. The first version of EPOC32, Release 1 appeared on the Psion Series 5 ROM v1.0 in 1997. Later, ROM v1.1 featured Release 3 (Release 2 was never publicly available.) .EPOC, which was programmed in OPL (Open Programming Language) and allowed users to create their own apps. [3][4]
2. Palm OS
also known as Garnet OS, is a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996.Palm emerged as a major rival to Psion in the PDA market with its cheaper, lower functionality range of PDAs
The main functionality of it is to manage, organize personal information , they release 5 version of it . [5]
3. WML
Wireless Markup Language (WML), based on XML, is a markup language intended foe devices that implementation the wireless application protocol (WAP). It was lightweight and good foe the low bandwidth you got with mobile devices back in the late 90's ,it provides negation support , data input, hyperlinks, text ,forms and image. [6][7]
4. Symbian
Symbian was a mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. Symbian was originally developed as a closed-source OS for PDAs in 1998 by Symbian Ltd.
It was Nokia that really drove the development of Symbian OS. The S60 platform was used on nearly all Nokia handsets as well as some Samsung and LG ones. The use of different, fragmented platforms (Sony Ericsson and Motorola used UIQ and there was MOAP(S) for NTT DoCoMo), each with its own API, meant that there were a variety of deployment techniques and no standard market place for apps.
Symbian OS was required middleware like (interface) to complete the operating system , first released was in 2002 and powering most Nokia smartphones. Symbian was the most widely used smart mobile operating system. [8]
2.1.2.2 The current state of mobile applications
1. Blackberry 10
Is a proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited .BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system. It was only to run Blackberry and android applications.
2. Android
Is a mobile operating system developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. [9]
3. IOS
"Formerly iPhone OS" is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that presently powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Major versions of iOS are released annually. The current version, iOS 10, was released on September 13, 2016.[10]
2.1.3 The purpose of mobile applications:
Nowadays mobile application have become almost essential to any business seeking to add value to their organization or to their own business.
Here a list of the most main purpose of mobile application.[11]
1. Add value.
2. Entertainment.
3. To enhance student education.
2.1.4 Social impact
2.1.4.1 Mobile Application in Present
From the last few years every mobile company are making the smartphone and feature phone. And increasing the computing power of those mobile phone, rapidly increase the smart mobile application. [12]
Most of the people from developed countries including America and Europe can't imagine leaving home without mobile. Not only the developed countries but also the developing countries the mobile application uses rate growth rapidly. [12]
The mobile application are using in different areas. We are going to explain some major used area. Let's think about communication like internet browsing, Voice chat, Facebook, Twitter etc. [13]
Now a day every standard mobile has Facebook application. User can share with their friends and family from anywhere and any place like in car, in train.
People can use messenger for chatting. We can generate call to any corner of the world with low cost using VoIP application and internet. [13]
Then we can talk about GPS System. Current position locating in map, Road navigation, vehicle tracking etc are the most uses application using GPS system. The Google Map helps us to find out any place. [13]
Using mobile commerce we can view product, select product and order for product. Sometime mobile application Mobile Wallet uses in restaurant or market for completing payment. People can doing business work using mobile application. Mobile banking and eTicketing is another feature of mobile application. Some time we can use mobile application with support of internet connection for controlling the home device from remote place. Business people are doing business from out of office. [13]
People can watch video and movie from YouTube directly using mobile application. They can play video and audio. Kids can play game in mobile which is also one kind of mobile application. [13]
According to a study by MobiLens , the number of mobile application user in US grew by 28% between April 2009 and April 2010. Here is a table of growth rate of all application categories in one year up to April 2010. [14]