Hopper Test

When it comes to mobile application, we seem to be most bothered about the UI and the functionality. We also find ourselves to be aware of the performance of the application. But we hardly bother about the Load and Stress part.

Majority of the applications we develop are the client applications (deployed on the mobile itself). So all we test is the functionality and the UI.

If we carefully read the instructions Microsoft has specified, there are many tests which an app has to pass to be on Marketplace. And among the list one of the tests is Hopper Test. What is Hopper Test? Why Hopper Test?

Hopper Test is randomly testing the application by clicking or tapping the different buttons and the controls of the application. Logically they may not make any sense but the sole purpose is to generate stress on the application. It just tests the stability of application under heavy and unpredictable usage. Hopper Test is helpful in detecting memory leaks and sustainment of the application. We may not bother about these tests when we are equipped with 2GB RAM and if not the fastest but an average processor. But on devices like mobile where even a WAP page loaded should not exceed certain KBs in size, we have to be smart when it comes to memory allocation or utilizing computing cycles or running a background service.

Microsoft has eased our job to conduct this kind of test by providing a Hopper tool which is bundled with Windows Mobile 6 SDK. The way Hopper tool works is to randomly tap all around the device display area simulating a user madly tapping on your application 100 of times each minute or may be more. It also enters very long randomly composed strings into your application's input fields. Together, these actions put your application through a tremendous level of stress in relatively short period of time. As the behavior of the tool is uncertain as to where it will tap, it puts stress on the areas that one would not have included under general testing.

These kinds of tools are a must for Mobile Applications and should be placed as one of the criteria for the application to be certified.

Read more about how to configure Hopper test in the next blog…

AndRead & WinRead stats

Here’s an update on how AndRead & WinRead have been performing so far in the market…
AndRead
Released on : 19th May 2009
Downloads till date: 3480 (Google Marketplace & Handango)
Avg. user rating: 3.52 (out of 5)
Ranking : Ranked 65th in News & Weather Category (in worldwide market – out of 279 apps)
Ranked 20th in News & Weather Category (in Asia market)
WinRead
Released on : 14th July 2009
Downloads till date: 281 (Handango – 137; Softpedia – 85; Cnet – 59)
Avg. user rating: 4.25 (out of 5)

So, if you haven’t already downloaded and used them, why wait ??

LWUIT - A J2ME UI Toolkit

Light Weight User Interface Tool (simply LWUIT pronounce as loo-it) is a savior for J2ME mobile applications as far as supporting multiple devices is concerned. As we all know, new devices getting launched quiet frequently and modifying our J2ME based applications to suit these devices is a nightmare.

LWUIT is an Open Source initiative from SUN and 1.2 version got released last month. You can download it from https://lwuit.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=0.
LWUIT can be considered as a subset of SWING framework without the power and complexity of it. It offers the following key features to simplify the User Interface development.
1) Flexible Layouts
2) Basic set of Components
3) Style & Themes
4) Animated screens
5) Event handling mechanism
6) Touch screen support
7) Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10N)

LWUIT applications have been tested on these Mobile manufacturer devices.
1) Sprint
2) Nokia
3) Sony Ericsson
4) Motorola
5) PhoneME
6) BlackBerry (Reported some issues initially and recommended to run the LWUIT application on a separate thread)



The above picture is from SUN tech days presentation and I feel no further explanation is required.

The world is “Mobiling” and majority of the new applications require “Mobility”. Unless we have a single tool(s) / platform(s) which cater for most of the mobile devices, it is hard to achieve the Mobility of your existing or new applications. I strongly believe and anticipate this unique tool, and LWUIT is just a beginning.

My enemy's enemy = My Friend

Well, it appears this is the approach that Microsoft is taking towards RIM by partnering with Nokia.

Microsoft and Nokia officially announced an agreement yesterday to partner in their fight against Blackberry. Aa part of the agreement, Microsoft will start offering their Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications (collaboration and device management software) to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be made available for Nokia ESeries.

Microsoft says that they are doing this as a part of their strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser. Nokia is looking at this from the perspecitve of providing a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device and they feel that Microsoft is an ideal partner for this.

Will they really be able to outbeat RIM which accounted for 34% of smartphone sales in the stores of the largest US wireless service providers in July 09? Some people say they will, some people dont feel that way at all. Well, it will succeed only if people are today backing off from buying Nokia due to lack of these programs/functionality. Highly unlikely, huh?

This also brings up another question about Microsoft's own baby - Windows Mobile... What is happening there ???

App store comparison

I'm not sure how many of us are familiar with the different app stores set up by the cell phone manufacturers and their distinct characteristics. While trying to read up on this, I found a very interesting article at Gizmodo.
Below table will give you a very high level understanding of the different appstores and their differences.

Note: Click on the image to view a clearer version

Operators are discussing about coming up with their own appstores. Very soon will mobile applications sell like any other online products where users can compare the price from one store to another and pick the best price?