Commercial Mobile Platforms in an Industrial Environment

Abstract: As commercial mobile devices grow more powerful their field of application expands. A mobile device that looks more and more like a computer can also be used like one, even in a industrial context. There are many different commercial mobile software and hardware platforms on the market today. Companies in the process of incorporating such mobile platforms in their systems stand before a difficult decision. This thesis evaluates the most popular platforms today from a case companies industrial point of view and shine light on the most important questions that arise in the platform decision process. This entails defining an industrial context, identifying relevant user scenarios and compiling a requirement specification that evidently leads to a platform recommendation. The first step in doing this is to determine company-specific requirements, gather data by conducting interviews and examine the existing company specific systems. This is followed by evaluation of the available mobile platforms on the market today; Android, Symbian, IPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. The purpose of this thesis is primarily to guide the company in this platform-decision process, but it can also be used as reference in future mobile development processes. Android is pointed out as the most suitable platform for future development and two prototypes are implemented fulfilling the most relevant user scenarios. The company is recommended to place as much functionality as possible in web solutions, since they are portable and often accessible from any platform.