An insight into the present and future of mobile Web with Maximiliano Firtman

Today Maximiliano Firtman, mobile developer with a focus on mobile web, shares his experience and thoughts about mobile web technologies, perspectives and limits with all Nokia Devs readers. If you have further questions to be answered about mobile Web, please leave a comment.

ND: Welcome Maximiliano, please tell us a bit about yourself.

I’ve been a developer focused on web 2.0 and mobile technologies for more than 10 years. I’ve developed apps for many native platforms and I’m now focused on mobile web, joining my two interests (web and mobile). I’m speaker and trainer for mobile technologies and I’m author of many books in spanish. I’m author of the book “Programming the Mobile Web” published by O’Reilly media in July, 2010.

I’m Forum Nokia Champion since 2006 and since that time I’ve created some global projects, like www.mobiletinyurl.com and widgen, a mobile widget generator. I’ve just launched my new blog on mobile web technologies, www.mobilexweb.com

ND: Which platforms and technologies do you use for mobile development on Nokia devices?

I use mainly Java ME and WRT widgets for Symbian. I’ve used C++ for some projects, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t like it. Too much work for small tasks. About IDEs, I always like NetBeans over Eclipse, even for my students. The Java ME plugin for NetBeans is better than Eclipse’s one. For WRT, I mainly use Aptana Studio and sometimes Adobe Dreamweaver, with the WRT free plugin available from Nokia.

For SDK I mainly use Series 40 SDK and some S60, but for S60 I prefer RDA (Remote Device Access) or the device itself. I don’t like S60 emulators, too heavy and it doesn’t work as I might expect.

ND: Which is the state of mobile Web nowadays?

Mobile web is right now in every web developer’s mouth. I was surprised of how many people were interested in my last talk in Santa Clara, California, inside Velocity 2010 about mobile web performance. Every developer is looking for mobile web, but most of them are afraid of the problems and compatibility issues. Following the right practices and having the right knowledge allow any web developer to enter the mobile web era successfully.

ND: How do you see the present and future of mobile widgets?

The present is a promissory future. I really like widget development, called webapps or HTML5 apps in other platforms. However, I’m not seeing a lot of development nowadays. It is still a platform that web developers don’t know about and mobile developer don’t like. The future is better. Many standards and frameworks are appearing, almost all manufacturers have some kind of widget platform in their roadmaps and every application store, like Ovi Store, accept or will accept widgets. So, for many kinds of applications, widgets will be a great platform in the very near future.

ND: Is cross-compatibility, in mobile Web, a reality today?

If we consider cross-compatibility, the ability of a mobile web to run over different devices, it is a reality doing some work on progressive enhancement and server-side content adaptation. If we consider cross-compatibility, the ability of a one source code to render properly on every device, it is not a reality today. There are too many standards and compatibility problems today that forces us to make some extra work for delivering the best possible experience for each device.
Mobile web today coexists with XHTML MP, XHTML Basic, XHTML, HTML 4.01, partial HTML 5, CSS 2.1, CSS 3, WebKit extensions for CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, JavaScript additional APIs. I insist that following some guidelines it is not as awful as it might appears to be.

ND: In your opinion, which are the strenghts of mobile Web, especially when compared to native apps?

* Access to knowledge, best practices, hacks, IDEs, tools and frameworks available today for the web
* Access to web 2.0 APIs easily
* Low time-to-market
* Porting between platforms is easier and simpler than in native apps
* On some platforms, it can be installed as any native app

ND: What is still missing to mobile Web, to get more developers approach it?

Standards between platforms is a big issue. Lack of official documentation from manufacturers is also a big problem. Hopefully my book will help developers to approach mobile web. Other problems include lack of multiplatform frameworks (there are a lot for iPhone or maybe a few for Android, but as we know, they are not the only platforms in the market).

ND: So, in the long run, how do you see the native apps VS mobile web “duel”?

I believe that mobile web will win in some areas, like mobile client for web services, quick and small apps and every apps focused on the web. Native apps will still exist for high-demand CPU applications, augmented reality, games or platform-specific applications.

ND: Which technical resources would you recommend for developers who want to start with Mobile Web?

After the research I’ve conducted for my book, I can say that good technical resources for mobile web doesn’t exist today. You have official documentation from some manufacturers (like library.forum.nokia.com) but they are not useful for multiplatform development. (In fact, Nokia documentation only talks about Symbian web development, nothing there for Series 40 or MeeGo). And some online resources about mobile web are too old. There are some other few books (2 or 3) in the market, but they have some years or they don’t have practical information, only a lot of “should work”, “be careful” but without real tips or information about compatibility. Therefore, with no intention of advertising (as you may know book authors don’t make money for book sales) my book “Programming the Mobile Web” is my best recommendation as a resource to start with Mobile Web.

ND: Something else you’d like to tell to Nokia developers?

Deliver the best possible experience for each device. Remember that not every user in the world is using the latest smartphones, so remember that Series 40 exists, even if you currently don’t have too many users from that platforms.
The final advice: Test, test and test. Use virtual labs for testing, even some free and excellent services, like Nokia Remote Device Access.