Input on future mobile platform

[Antonio Sun]

On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> I think there's not likely to be anyone that has a coherent idea as to
> what The Next Thing will be.

That's not a problem at all. Everyone has their own view, we don't
need to reach any coherent idea at all. What's important to me is to
see if I've missed anything while taking my view.

> Further, the notion that it's Mostly About The Technology seems
> laughable, because the customers that *buy* millions of mobile devices
> aren't about the technology.

Agree.

What I forgot to emphasis in my OP was that, the reason that I was
asking was that, being a programmer that want to get into the mobile
programming world, with zero previous experience, I am trying to catch
the "next wave", because I'm not into the Apple's ObjectC niche
market, and I don't want to get into the Java-based Android
programming either.

I'm planning to get my foot wet into something that'll be cross
platform, i.e. good for phone, tablet, and desktop as well. However,
that's easy to set a goal than to find where actually to go.

On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 3:34 PM, William Muriithi
<william.muriithi-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

>> What's your idea about the near future mobile platform? What's in
>> trending? Which of today's technology do you think will take the lead
>> tomorrow?
>
> . . .
>
>> The reason that I'm asking is that, although the Java-based Android is in
>> domain of current mobile development platform (in my so-called technology
>> driven world of course), I don't think it will be future, and I don't
>> believe Google is happy about the Java-based platform either. What do you
>> think? Which one will win over tomorrow?
>>
> What make you think Google is not happy about it? Never seen any article
> that imply the hate Java, they actually used it a lot even before android

I tend to agree more with the article

Writing native Android applications with Javascript? Not yet.
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/writing_native_android_applications_javascript_not_yet

I.e., It's all about timing. Google/Android chose Java because there
were no other good alternatives. Now things have been completely
changed -- "So, what has changed? Two words: 1) Chrome 2) Javascript I
am convinced that Chrome and Javascript changed the whole IT landscape
radically." . . .

"In the end, if Google had to decide how to build Android in 2008
rather than 2005, I have little doubt that they would have picked
Javascript as their language of choice. Instead, Android has fully
embraced Java"...

Quite agree with that, so I'm quoting straight from the article.

>> I have my own view on this, but would like to know yours as well.

> Hmm, weird. So what if everybody adopt similar strategy?

Alright, alright. Let me share my view first, and anyone can share
theirs as well. Again, we don't need to agree with each other. I tend
to think that the discussion will be kind of a reminder -- "Hey, here
is another way to look at it".

First of all, I want to emphasis again, being a programmer, I think it
*is* the technology renovation that lead to the "surviving/leading"
mobile phone or tablet, It is not about the consumer at all. Anyone ,
any company who is not actively seeking the next renovation will be
end up like blackberry/Nokia/Motorola/etc.

So what's trending?

Again, being a programmer who embrace the open-source world most, I
care more on what's in Google's mind than in Apple's. I thinking
Google is putting more and more their bet on Javascript and Chrome
(concurring the above article). Android is not the *only* popular
mobile OS that Google owns. The other popular mobile OS that Google
owns is Chrome OS, the product being Chrome Book. This is what Google
prefers for now I believe. There is an estimation that the Chrome Book
sales will increase by 300% this year.

Look at what Google has been putting their efforts in now, that'll
pretty safely predict what the future mobile product/platform etc
would be. Has anyone see the Racer demo at Google I/O 2013? That tells
what Google has been putting their efforts in now.  "Racer was built
to show what’s possible on today’s mobile devices using an entirely
in-browser experience. The goal was to create a touch-enabled
experience that plays out across multiple screens (and speakers). "
Google says "the web technologies that made this Chrome Experiment
[would be] “street-legal” in a couple of months". The web technologies
used include:

- the solution is cross platform, works for either phones or tablets
(different screen sizes of course), with:
- 2D vector drawings on HTML5 Canvas
- sound is shared and synced across multiple devices using the Web
Audio API (Each device plays one slice of Giorgio Moroder’s symphony
of sound—requiring five devices at once to hear his full composition.
)
- syncing the phones or tablets is done by WebSockets, which enables
rapid two-way communication between devices.
- the next step is to use WebRTC data channels—the next generation of
speedy Web communication

Details available from
http://blog.chromium.org/2013/06/race-across-screens-and-platforms.html

To recap, to me, Google is working at a *cross platform* solution that
works for phones, tablets or desktops, and this "pure web-based"
solution is their goal, and they have already achieved it. See, no
Java in sight at all!

So, being a programmer who has zero previous experience in the mobile
programming, if I start learning now from Java-based Android
programming, I'll completely miss the point if I want to catch up with
the next/leading wave.

Now, what's your view on what's trending in new mobile technology?

Thanks
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