In my previous post, I have talked on a way to deal with diversity and proposed solution. There are multiple frameworks/products claiming to provide such framework. But what is the ground reality? What is the future of such frameworks?
Having such framework is always ambitious, but personally I don’t see better future of such frameworks because to following reasons:
Proprietary Issues
Lack of openness – Majority of the Smartphone app development platform providers don’t want to open the doors to have parallel app development solutions. Recent example is Apple’s 3.3.1 clause of license agreement that will not allow app developed using any other language except C/C++ or java script. This type of restriction will axe on such providers. It seems that many players want to keep their system close to have proprietary access and controlled future. I believe such restrictions will continue to grow & that’s why I don’t see good future of common app development environment of products/frameworks.
Still there is a ray of hope from some open providers like Android, which claim and promise to be open for other technological solutions. i.e. In recent Android release Froyo which has flash support while it is blocked under section 3.3.1 by iPhone. But point is, if common framework providers claim to map diversity then they should support major smart phone app development platforms (not only Android, in this case)
Technical Challenges
All Smartphone frameworks are technically diverse. Even though few are using Linux kernel base but still they don’t share common programming model for developers. Of course this is not much challenging, thanks to scripting languages and recognizable efforts from some providers like *Phonegap*, *RhoMobile, Appcelerator but still it remains a challenge for many others.
Future is uncertain
It looks like Smartphone market is on roller coaster ride. Many players have emerged in a short span of time & the number is increasing. Even existing players are changing their native app development framework, for example Blackberry moving towards widgets from its OS version 5.0.
Common platform provider will always remain under pressure to support the new features, UI controls etc adopted by native providers. It is not easy for common platform providers to sustain in this ever changing industry.
Though there are so many blockers for common platform providers, there is always room for new ideas and innovation. It becomes very important to wait & watch if any of existing provider or a new entrant can break this barrier!
