Mobile computing and social networks in modern app ecosystems

Mobile Computing and Social Networks

There are many mobile apps in the market that have been designed to cater for various tasks and processes. Mobile apps were initially designed for gaming but improvements have been made to ensure that they can be used for business purposes. Applications have been designed to improve efficiency of mobile devices. Users have been able to make use of mobile phones to replace devices such as desktop computers and cameras.

Effectiveness and efficiency mobile-based applications

Technological advancements in the field of communication have undergone numerous changes over the decade. Mobile phones conventionally used for basic communication can now be used to conduct more features. The software being used in the mobile devises have enabled the devises to be used for more application than communication. The mobile devices being sold in the market are considered smart phones due to the array of applications that they can undertake. Apple Inc. And android manufactures are some of the major companies in the software market. The app market is one of the emerging markets facilitated by the use of this new software. The apps increase the functions of the mobile device. Initially the app market was dominated by gaming application but is changing with introduction of useful software.

One of the main selling points of these apps is the ability to improve the effectiveness of the mobile devise. The user could use the mobile devise for more functions other than communication. Some applications have enabled users to store information easily on their devise. The use of notebooks has been eliminated and diaries have become absolute with the introduction of such apps. The user is able to store user's information and produce it when needed. The user can also be reminded when to access the data. The apps have ensured that the data stored is safe from hackers and damage.

Some apps have enabled the users to monitor the geographical location of the mobile device improving connectivity and security. Parents have been able to use these apps on their children's devices to determine their location at all time. Business organizations have used the apps to monitor the location of their vehicles thus improving security and accountability. Some of the organizations have saved on insurance and fuel using the mobile apps. Companies producing mobile devices can use the customer's data to determine how to approach an emerging market. A geographical location where customers download mobile apps is a good market for mobile devices (Zheng & Ni, 2006).

Banks and insurance firms have also benefited from the use of mobile apps to increase their client base. Apps have been designed to handle conventional operations which may be considered as time consuming by the customers. Mobile chequeing apps have allowed the client to deposit cheques from any location and at any time. This has enabled the clients to avoid the hustle of visiting the bank. The time taken to clear the cheque is also reduced through the use of these apps. Banks that have adopted these apps for android and iPhone have increased the number of customers compared to banks using conventional services. Insurance firms have also attracted more clients using the mobile phone apps. The clients may download apps on their devises that will enable the client to take photos at the accident scene and upload them to the company's database. This will save the client time to file the claim or wait for company officials to access the site of the accident. The apps have enabled the customers to enjoy efficient services that save time and money.

Benefits realized by consumers

The use of mobile applications has enabled clients to store data on their mobile devices. This has improved data storage, access and security. This has improved efficiency of mobile devises and improved reliability on the communication device. The major benefit of mobile apps is ability to access information regardless of the location. Mobile apps have enabled the client to access important information stored in the mobile device. This is a convenient way to access the information as the customer carries the mobile device at all times. The user does not need to have access a desktop or lap top to use information stored in the mobile device.

Mobile apps have increased the use of mobile devices to incorporate the use of computers. Some mobile devices have similar capabilities with computers. The mobile apps make the device compatible with many applications enabling the user to save on buying many devices. The user does not need to buy a mobile phone, a computer, a camera and other devices when such mobile devices can combine the uses of all the devices. The mobile apps make use of these features to improve the quality of life of the user. The user does not have to carry these devices when a mobile phone will do all the work (Zheng & Ni, 2006).

The user is able to carry information with him at all times. This makes the information stored to be safe at all times. The user can protect his information as this information is not entrusted to a second party. The information stored in the mobile application can only be disbursed with the command from the user thus information is protected. The application enables the user to backup information. In the event hat the mobile device is stolen or destroyed, the user can use the apps to retrieve information stored by the mobile device.

Consumers also benefit from the use of mobile applications by the flexibility the mobile applications provide the client. Since the mobile device is owned by the user, the customer may use an application at his own convenience without being interrupted. The user can open more than one application on the same device without using the application to the final step. The user can later finish using the application without any data loss as the device is not being shared. The use of applications enables the user to have flexible operation time as the user can fill out important information at night and upload them to a database for future use (Zheng & Ni, 2006).

Some apps have enabled the user to track important information which saves on time and money. Stock traders have apps that track the cost of stocks in the market and enable the user to trade or monitor stocks being traded. Some apps give information that the user may use to manage his day. Weather news is effectively monitored using apps to ensure that the user dresses well to match the weather or avoids treacherous weather that may result in bad traffic.

Challenges of developing applications

Most of the mobile devices have small screens that range from 4 to 7 inches. This poses a great problem to mobile app designers to ensure that the user can gain access to all the information provided by the application. The applications that require the users to interact with a website need to have the right resolution to allow the customer to easily access the information on the website. Most designers ensure that the application have the right font to fit the screen of the mobile device. Other designers have a zoom option to enable the user to zoom on the application to view or input the relevant data.

When designing mobile apps, the designer must have in mind the devices that are compatible with the design. Compatibility can be determined by screen size or processing speed. If an app is being designed for the iPhone, the screen size for this device is standard for all iPhone model. An app for a phone running on android software needs to be designed to work on various screen sizes. The designer should ensure that the design will work on the device the app is being installed (B'Far, 2004).

The content of the app also needs to be considered when designing a mobile app. The content of an app consist of all the information that the user will find useful. Most apps supplement the use of websites which generally have a lot of information and may take time to load on a small device. An app like yahoo mobile allows the user to access important like the inbox and composes links. There are various versions of the app that depend on the software installed on the mobile device and the screen size. The designer should ensure that all the information that the client needs to access constitute the content of the app.

The screen is considered the user interface when using mobile devices. The screen should be an effective communication tool in that the user should have access to the information displayed. The screen size also determines the power usage and cost of connecting to the internet. If the screen size of the mobile device is small, the user will open many links to access information that can be got from the website. This increases the cost of connection for the user. The larger the screen then the more power the device uses thus the need to connect to a power source after some time (B'Far, 2004).

Screen size and resolution are important when designing a mobile app. The designer should ensure that the resolution and screen size supports the application. The images on the application should load effectively and quickly. All the content that the designer intends to show the user should be on the app. The screen is one of the hardware that the designer should base his design. The designer can provide various versions of the product to be compatible with the mobile devices in the market. The app market is on the increase with designers designing more apps to cater for the increasing demand.

Describe the methods that can be used to decide which platform to support i.e., iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, or Android.

All these platforms are fantastic in their features. However, there are certain differences in each platform that can lead a user to preferring one to the others. Preference for applications is based on different methods that each user may choose, in comparison to others who may look at that as a disadvantage.

Integration with other applications

One of the most notable features that users want in their platforms is the ability to connect to other applications with ease. It is cumbersome when the platform that a user chooses often prompts the user to perform other actions midway through their interactions in order to access other applications. With Android, the user has the ability to share information with the other applications. In this platform, it is not only possible, but also easy to share pictures with social media like Face book and Twitter. Google+ and Tumblr are also other supported applications. The contacts on Gmail are also readily available for transfer to the phone book. However, this is not the case with the iPhone platform. Here, the users have to go to the Face book app itself in order to upload the picture. This is because there is no prompt for updating and tagging the photo directly, and the user has to upload the picture manually. Windows Phone has easy directions that will help the user in uploading the photos directly without going through the long manual process. The iPad platform does not also offer a chance for connection with the other applications easily and is similar to that of the iPad (Sarno 2010).

Speed

Another method that can help the user to determine the most suitable platform is the speed. When it comes to device speed, the iPhone is the fastest. The response that the touchpad of this platform has is far ahead of the competitors. Using applications on the platform is relatively easy and not prone to hanging, unlike Android. Android lags behind in the speed of responsiveness from the touchpad. The speed in which the games and applications of the phone appear is also another frailty of the platform (Sarno 2010). Windows Phone is fast enough to handle applications without stuttering and has a sensitive touchpad. The touchpad of the iPad is also sensitive, and the user has the ability to type faster than on other competing platforms.

Connectivity to the internet

Speeds of data exchange on all these platforms are vast and discernible. Android uses the 4G network, which is relatively fast. During downloading, the speeds of the platform are exceptionally high. Download speeds for the 4G network reach even up to 7.35 megabytes per second in some cases. Therefore, surfing is relatively fast on Android systems. The iPhone runs on the 3G network. This old and slow network does not offer much speed. Therefore, downloading and surfing on this platform is low, and the users have to be content with speeds, which are approximately 1.0 megabytes per second. Even the sending of a simple email from the iPhone is slow and cumbersome, in comparison to the other platforms (Sarno 2010). The connectivity for the iPad is also the 3G network; therefore, it is fast but nothing in comparison to the Android platform. The speed of the Windows Phone is also appalling and extremely fast compared to the iPhone and the iPad. However, the closest rival in terms of speed is the Android.

Mobile applications require high availability because end users need to have continuous access to IT and IS systems.

Discuss ways of providing high availability

It is imperative that there is access to data for applications for the users. This is because failure to this will lead to the inability for the servers to handle the requests of the clients. Therefore, there is a need for providing high availability through various methods.

Data replication

This is one of the methods that is remarkably efficient when it comes to the provision of high availability. Through this process, there is certainty of existence of all the components that are necessary for the application server (Bohner 2009). This is because it creates another extra copy of the application data. The maintenance of the two copies of data through this method is via clustering and remote journaling. Moreover, there is a requirement of the third-party software that is necessary for the process. The reason that makes the process particularly impatient is that the systems that are existent are physically separable. The essence of clustering is to help in the communication. In this case, this is between two servers and more. Therefore, it becomes easy to store the data in another machine that is not geographically close to the one that the customer is using (Bohner 2009). Consequently, the remote journaling is also imperative because it enhances the creation of the extra copy of data. It is worthy to note that there are two ways in which the remote journaling occurs. In the synchronous method, the data appears on the primary and backup at the same time. As much as this process ensures efficiency, the performance of the device is poor because of the lapse time. When using the asynchronous method, the route of copying is from the application to the primary database.

Switchable disk

This is another method that also uses clustering. However, it uses local journaling and the IASP. The Independent Auxiliary Storage Pool stores the data. In case of failure in the process, this IASP is always readily switchable to other nodes. Through the switchable disk, there is certainly no need for the synchronization of data. This is because there is no chance of the data replicating. The frailty is that the database proceeds to providing all the failures of the system. In addition, this method does not allow for disaster recovery because of the physical constrains. Local journaling in this process enables the preservation of transaction boundaries (Bohner 2009) . Clustering is also hugely beneficial in this method. This is because it creates the services that are necessary in the switching of the IASP. Moreover, it provides for the monitoring of the partitions. There is also necessity for the presence of a server cluster in the switchable disk. This is particularly necessary and has to occur in all the nodes of the whole cluster.