When will mobile operating systems achieve a universal development platform?The generally accepted answer to this question by seasoned developers is around the same time that Windows 7 and OS X become open source. There is far too much technological pride and 'not invented here' syndrome floating around for that to happen any time soon. In any case, excessive standards can stifle innovation.
HTML5 offers such a promise, but the standard is immature and Microsoft is still basing its Windows Phone development on Silverlight. Kevin C. Tofel at Gigaom highlighted some telling stats In any case, many suppliers of the rugged phones that are still the mainstay of business solutions are resolutely sticking with Windows Mobile 6.5.
Developers that I speak to have doubts about writing full featured apps using web technologies. Javascript is still trying to shake off its 'script-kiddie' reputation. For some developers, the only acceptable way to write a mobile app is to use native development tools.
If the desirability for standards across mobile platforms is largely motivated by the desire to simplify the process of creating cross-platform apps. then maybe this same goal can be addressed, not by standardizing all platforms, but creating an application development layer that sits above the native development tools generating native projects that are then compiled by the platform specific tools.
Meme IDE is such a tool. It has platform specific screen designers and a platform neutral programming language (Meme Script). The platform currently generates native code projects for Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android 2.1, with iOS and Blackberry on the way.
Something to think about!
Simon Monk @theappmonk
CodeProject
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