Cell Phone Application Development

I have an idea for software that I would like to develop and market to owners of cell phones that have GPS and Bluetooth.

I have a little development and scripting experience, but none with cell phones and don't know where to start learning.

I know Apple made an SDK for the iPhone, and assume Microsoft put an SDK out for their mobile OS, but what about the other 1,000 proprietary phone OS's out there?
There are some apps (Google maps, for example) that seem to work across platforms (including Microsoft and iPhones).

Any advice on where to start with this?

 

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For the iphone apple has finally released their SDK plus an IDE but only on MAC's and if you want to publish to a actual Iphone you have to bend over to apple and pay for the privilege.

So for the best coverage of devices try the J2ME wireless toolkit. It will cover the majority of phones

 

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pretty much every cell phone I've had for the last 3 years runs java apps - so I guess that's your platform

don't worry about the iPhne - its too proprietary and really not all that good compared to sony and nokia

 

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Thanks for the tips guys.

Buy how many have they sold?
If I want to have my app be popular, can I afford to ignore the iPhone?

 

Unfortunately the only way to develop for the IPhone is on a Mac. Also to release an application on the phone you will need accreditation from Apple and that will cost you. Apple is very protective of its intellectual property and if your app would happen to cross paths with anything they have or plan to have you can forget about getting approval. A major investment in time and money would be lost.

Apples IPhone have a large consumer base but this is still marginal compared to other phones. They might have a million or two phones out there but there a 100 of millions of phones. IPhone enjoys less then 1.8% of the market. Significant for apple but for developers it is insignificant. It is already losing that share so be wary.

 

J2ME, here I come.

Thanks a lot.

 

I need the phones to be able to download data from a server on a real-time basis.
I assume this means I have to restrict the app to internet enable phones, or is there some way to accomplish this for phones without internet service?

 

Only if they keep WiFi on it.

 

Even with WiFi, it would still need to be Internet capable, though.

 

You still have GPRS/EDGE/3G download capability without WiFi. I use GPS enabled Google Maps on my PDA when I'm out and about walking, helped me locate a rather nice pub to stop off at once!

So I guess if people have a good data bundle with their tarif, WiFi isn't that important, being able to use your app whereever might be though.

There is also 'The Cloud' of WiFi hotpsots, if you think you have a killer app, it might bo worth talking to them, as they might help market and promote your software, as it will help them get customers.

On the iPhone, yeah, ignore it. It's proprietary, closed box Apple protectionist rot, and about to be dealt a death blow by Nokia;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7595622.stm

Free music downloads for a year, parents will love that stuff, knowing their kids aren't racking up iTunes bills/data xfer bills.

 

Will apps developed with J2ME run on Windows Mobile devices?

Of course.
What I was saying is that this app needs to be able to recieve data from a server.
The only way I know to do that is if the phone has Internet access, WiFi or not.

I can't see how they would get much from this, but it is worth thinking about - thanks.

 

Will apps developed with J2ME run on Windows Mobile devices?

 

From searching around the answer appears to be yes. However you may have to do a lot of digging to determine if an implementation supports the features you want.

http://mobilepit.com/06/install-j2me-javame-midlet-manager-in-pocket-pc-pda.html