Mobile System Architectures
Depending on need, mobile products can be structured quite differently. Here is one way to dissect the possible scenarios.
Untethered App
- Example: Angry Birds game
- Server: never or rarely requires one
- UI paradigm: must be a Local App
- Difficulty: Can be the easiest, although there are super complex and rich games
Mobile Only App
- Example: WikiPanion
- Server: requires your own server, with intermittent or constant connection
- UI paradigm: local App. The primary (and sometimes only) access to functionality is over an app. There is no user interface for the ‘server’ or ‘service’
- Difficulty: Significant challenge to provide all the functionality over limited device.
Pure web-ui
- Example: CNN Lite
- Server: requires a dedicated server, and connected all the time
- UI paradigm: web based UI, by definition
- Difficulty: You save a lot of trouble by not having to develop local app. Much less mobile platform dependence
Mobile front end to rich web app
- Example: Facebook app on iPhone and Android
- Server: your own server, providing it’s own user experience, plus a connection to the mobile app
- UI paradigm: Looks like a native app, often is a hybrid
- Difficulty: One of the most difficult. You need to design two separate and complete user experiences
N.B. The acceptable and popular approaches are constantly evolving based on user expectation and available tools and platforms