The recent boom in mobile computing development has been highlighted by the release of Apple's iPhone and accompanying platform. Since its launch the phone has acquired 17.3% of total Smartphone market share, overtaking other more experienced mobile phone platforms including Microsoft Windows Mobile (Thayer & Richard, 2000: 36). The sheer growth and popularity has been (amongst other things) attributed to the simplicity of its interface design as well as its intelligent use of multiple ambient sensors. This has made the use of complex functions far simpler and has therefore reached a larger and less technically able audience.
Task 1: Mobile Phone Applications
Disadvantages of Mobile Apps
Apps have short lifetimes, 20 days or less
Less than 20% of brand apps are downloaded more than 1000 times
Apps are limited to phone platforms
Requires long term investment, updates to an app every few months
If its heavily ad supported, users will not like it
Requires customers to download it before they can experience it
You have to get it right first time - app reviews stick.
App updates and revenue cut taken by the app store
Disadvantages of Mobile Optimised Websites
Relies on having an internet connection
Sits inside browser chrome
Less control on how the site renders on different handsets
Can't make use of native interactions
Advantages of Mobile Apps
Good for linear processes and tools
Can use all the screen, without any browser chrome
With customer market research to establish your customer app use and platform, you can tailor an experience for them
Can use the phone's native interactions, taps, rotation, GPS, Camera
Can use the phone's native tools and toggles, all familiar to the customer
Advantages of Mobile Optimised Websites
Can be updated more easily than apps
Work well to extend or convert an existing site
Can be developed to be in sync with the main site
Often require less maintenance, updates annually or more often
Platformless (apart from support for JavaScript, flash and screen size)
Investment required is often less
Reach a wider market by not limiting to platform
No fees to update or revenue to share with an app store
Task 2: Estimation of the Time and Cost for the Entire Project
For the proposed project we will be implementing bottom-up technique for estimating time and cost. Bottom-up estimating is an extremely helpful technique in project management as it allows for the ability to get a more refined estimate of a particular component of work. In bottom-up estimating, each task is broken down into smaller components. Then, individual estimates are developed to determine what specifically is needed to meet the requirements of each of these smaller components of the work (Shelly, 2011: 114). The estimates for the smaller individual components are then aggregated to develop a larger estimate for the entire task as a whole. In doing this, the estimate for the task as a whole is typically far more accurate, as it allows for careful consideration of each of the smaller parts of the task and then combining these carefully considered estimates rather than merely making one large estimate which typically will not as thoroughly consider all of ...