Devices and Software: Multifaceted Approaches

Arun Ranganathan, System Architect

arunranga@aol.com

Let's State Our Terms

• Mobile Web 2.0: Not Just an Immersive Browser Experience
• Oh, and Lots of Different Kinds of Device Software
• It's about Users, Not Geeks like Me

(Some of) The AOL Landscape

• Wildseed (Linux Based) Extensible Platform
  • For Connected Media Players
• Tegic (T9) Technologies: Shipped on 2.9Billion Handsets in 58 Languages
• Mobile AIM - 70 Million IMs (out of 2B daily) are Mobile
• Leverage Mobility -- cameras, MMS, SMS
• Device Software -- e.g. Mobile MapQuest
• Web Content -- e.g. mobile.aol.com

Idea of Software On (and Around) Devices

• Conjecture: Mobile Web 2.0 Is The Sum Of Different Parts
  • Application Frameworks
  • Device Browsers
  • Device's Intrinsic Capabilities
• Web Technologies (Protocols, Formats, Paradigms) Are Enablers

My Wish List: Mobile Web

• Best Practices Really Help, But:
• "True" Unification of Formats (xHTML and MIME types, WML): Round the Corner?
  • Currently, AOL uses "well-known" developer tools (e.g. Microsoft Visual Studio) as well as open source ones (e.g. WURFL) to help.
• Access to Data From Browser-like APIs
  • The Promise of Mobile AJAX within Browsers -- Woohoo!
  • Mobile Web Apps. Enriched with Location Data
  • Address Book Data?
  • Further Potential Standardization of APIs

Questions, Thoughts, Comments