Enterprise Wireless Catching a Wave?

Growth in wireless IT development has been plagued by false starts for years. But now, a recent survey by Evans Data Corp. suggests there may be hope. J2ME development is at a new high, and has grown by 33% in just six months, fueled by fewer porting hassles and more devices for the Java mobile runtime. Hear what all the buzz is about in wireless IT.

by Vance McCarthy

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IDN Executive Overview
Among topics covered in this article are:

  • An overview of the latest Evans Data's Wireless Developer survey
  • Highlights on where wireless developers put the most emphasis, and where they say the wireless software and hardware/platform makers still need improvements.

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    by Integration Developer News staff
    Growth for wireless IT development has been plagued by false starts for years. But now, a recent survey by Evans Data Corp. suggests there may be hope. J2ME development is at a new high, and has grown by 33% in just six months, fueled by less hassle and more devices for the Java mobile runtime.

    "J2ME's growth can be directly attributed to wide-spread adoption of J2ME-capable devices in the consumer marketplace, increasing the demand for custom software," said Evans' wireless analyst Jason Kaczor. He also pointed to another factor in J2ME's growth spurt. "It's more cost effective to develop J2ME-compliant code once, than to customize or re-write code for differing devices and operating systems."

    The improvements in wireless application runtimes (e.g. .NET, J2ME or Java) provide devs with an improved set of features for memory management, API-abstraction libraries, security, deployment, etc.

    In the Evans survey, developers ranked various elements of the "wireless stack" in terms of importance to their development/implementation decisions as follows:

    1. runtime (27%)
    2. mobile device (20%)
    3. operating system (20%) and
    4. consumer popularity (14%)

    The most common application? Well, Evans found 40% of J2ME devs are working on apps to let users remotely download, install and/or execute new applications. (19% of respondents said they plan remote initiated apps for the next year.)

    Other Wireless Momentum-Builders
    The Evans survey also found wireless devs feel there is still more work to do to make wireless projects more compelling -- and more productive. Of note:

  • Testing/Debugging -- 76% of devs say testing and debugging tools are "extremely important" or "very important." But, Evans found this sector to be the second "most unsatisfactory" type of tool on the wireless devs' list -- with almost a quarter indicating that they need work.

  • Tools Improvements -- 30% of developers constructing phones felt improvements to software applications and the resulting increase in efficiency could most reduce development costs,

  • Platform Improvements -- 17% felt that optimizing the platform and operating system were the best means for reducing construction costs.

    The latest Evans research was based on interviews with 450 wireless enterprise devs in the summer of 2004.

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