An easier way to mobilise web interactions?

Stephen Withers
Monday, 23 August 2010 12:25

Business IT - Technology

An Australian company reckons it has a way of delivering native-looking web applications to multiple mobile platforms with a minimum of effort.

Have you ever wondered if it's really worth the effort to create a mobile version of your web site when only a subset of the functionality is really relevant to someone using a handheld device? Or if it's too expensive to develop the same information-delivery app for multiple platforms. Blink Mobile Interactive thinks there's a better way.

Blink's software originated as a messaging system that could be updated via the web or SMS, and in response delivered SMSes to subscribers. That system is still in use by councils and sports teams (among others), and sends tens of thousands of SMSes on wet weekends to update players with the latest fixture information.

The underlying engine was generalised to implement 'answerSpaces' - Blink's term for objects that respond to messages. This allows the software to interact with an arbitrary back end (which may be a web site or some other service) to carry out some kind of interaction.

The software also takes care of user interface issues for various devices. So instead of developing specific apps for different mobile devices, Blink's software provides a native-looking interface for iPhone, BlackBerry and other devices.

This makes it very easy to create mobile applications. According to Blink director Alan Williams, a library search can be implemented in a matter of minutes.

Development is "an order of magnitude quicker than practically anything else," he said.

What about hardware features that aren't accessible from web apps? Please read on.