Editor's Corner
Mobile Widgets
The allure of widgets is obvious: porting, compatibility testing and code signing are major headaches for developers just trying to create a simple application or piece of content. A well-designed widget architecture promises to take that all away.
I've touched on mobile widget platforms from Bling on Mojax when I wrote about mobile AJAX a few weeks ago, but since then Opera Software has announced Opera 9 Mobile, which will feature a mobile version of Opera Widgets. This is a pretty big deal as Opera already has a large library of desktop widgets and a sizable user base. (The other big new feature announced in Opera 9 Mobile is "intelligent zoom," which sounds a bit like the "pinch zoom" feature in the upcoming iPhone.)
And Opera isn't the only big name trying to get in on the action. Yahoo is trying to leverage its desktop Widget Engine (and the 1,500 existing desktop widgets available for download) with the latest version of Yahoo Go for Mobile. Go for Mobile 2.0 is a downloadable app that includes widgets for weather, breaking news, search and pictures through Flickr.
Another new entrant to the mobile widget arena is Canoo's UltraLightClient (ULC). ULC is best known as a Java-based platform for creating "rich Internet applications." The company just announced ULC Mobile, a J2ME version that can leverage ULC's existing codebase. There is one catch: while many products let developers create widgets for free in order to promote the platform, ULC Mobile has to charge for it. The client is free, but a developer license costs about $5,000.
Next Week: I'll be reporting live from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. -Eli
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Comments
Posted by Anders Borg | February 27, 2007 - 2:57pm
A drawback with Opera 9 Mobile is that not many phones use it, yet almost all new phones run Java applications. It probably would make more sense to turn Opera Mini into a widget platform.
ULC's high developer license seems to be a bad decision, but points to that they are aiming at larger development houses.
Posted by Alan Tonnesen | March 1, 2007 - 4:22pm
Passport Corporation will be showing its Intelligent Thin Client/Rich Mobile Platform for the first time at next months AjaxWorld. Passport has been selling its applications built on this platform in the Time & Labor space with partners Kronos and ADP and will now be exploring ways to make the platform available to developers.
Passport's Rich Mobile Applications are transaction oriented and move seamlessly in and our of coverage utilizing advanced store & forward capabilities, guaranteed transaction delivery and publish & subscribe asynchronous messaging to deliver highly advanced Rich Mobile Applications.
see ajaxworldconference.com and passportcorp.com
Posted by Abhinandan Sonvane | July 3, 2007 - 12:47am
Hi All
I am new in this forum and Mobile World too.I am developing a Mobile Enterprise Application using Thinlet. This application is Smart Client Application.I want to know if any better API other than Thinlet is available which can be implemented instead.
