How Mobile Cloud Can Help To Resolve Fragmentation

Faizan Ahmad
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Since Appcelerator and IDC released in 2011 the results of a survey they conducted, the public was made more aware of the concern of fragmentation which left users unsatisfied with the performance of early tablets running on Android.

It was also during this time when Android mobile interest plateaued and the interest shifted back toward Apple devices. From here, people started showing an increased interest in experts’ recommended solution: taking advantage of how mobile cloud can help to resolve fragmentation.

The Problem

Fragmentation is the biggest challenge faced by users of mobile devices running on Android. Because of this, the public interest in Android phones was reported to be a mere 85% whereas iPhone devices got a 95% interest rate from the same group of respondents.

Apple again took the lead when their iPads scored 86% from the public while Android tablets only got 71%. According to approximately 2/3 of the respondents, the reason for this was indeed fragmentation. 

The Solution

There isn’t much debate on how mobile cloud can help to resolve fragmentation. The mobile cloud in itself shows a lot of promise in the view of mobile app developers. According to them, the use of mobile web will resolve the issue with cross-platform and fragmentation.

However, this will only be successful if the mobile cloud is used with the mobile web. For as long as the user still favors downloading mobile apps over using the mobile web, the growth of the cloud will be held back.

Mobile Cloud
Image Credits: blog.box.com

Mobile applications and mobile websites have different purposes. Either one of the two may be more appropriate than the other, depending on what it is exactly that the user and the provider want to achieve. As far as resolving fragmentation is concerned, mobile websites are theoretically more favorable. The mobile web has better reach, ease, and speed than mobile apps.

Another advantage of websites over downloaded apps is that the internet may be accessed whenever you need it to serve whichever purpose you need it for at the time. An application, however, can only serve that particular purpose it was designed for, and in the event that you would no longer need it, then there would no longer be any use for it. However, mobile apps are preferred by the economic model because they hold higher market opportunity and customer demand.

To resolve the fragmentation issue while customers and providers alike still favor apps over the mobile web, it is suggested that mobile web be used as a complement to the apps and not a replacement.

This way, the user will be able to get better cross-platform coverage without having to get rid of his downloaded mobile apps. The problem with this resolution is that, even with a decent network connection, native or downloaded applications can be bottlenecks for a good user experience.

In the end, the only way the mobile cloud would be able to fully resolve the issue with fragmentation is that if it were to be used only with the web. The mobile cloud also holds so much promise in resolving many other issues arising from the mobile platform and device limitations.
However, it might still take some time before this strategy becomes the new trend.

Josephine Clark

About the Author:

Josephine Clark, Editor at QuickBooks Cloud Hosting DotNet spends considerable part of her time in writing about technology including quickbooks cloud hosting and Hosted PBX. When not writing, she loves to dig deeper into knowing the best and the latest technology in industry.

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