Beginning Smartphone Web Development: Building JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax-based Applications for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia S60

Gail Frederick · Rajesh Lal

Apr 2010 · Apress

About this ebook

I believe in the W3C’s principle of One Web—that services and information on the web should be thematically consistent and accessible to all kinds of devices, without regard to differences in presentation capabilities. Informally, the One Web principle means that if I write my grocery list online at home in Firefox, I should be able to view the list and check off my purchases at the grocery store using my mobile phone. That said, the Mobile Web and its ecosystem are unique in many ways—in access patterns, user behaviors, browser technologies, and client capabilities. A recent mobiThinking report coined the maxim “utility is the engine of the Mobile Web”. This phrase has become my mantra for Mobile Web development and I encourage you to adopt it as well. Mobile Web content succeeds when it solves a real problem for a user on the move. Driving directions, public transportation, business listings, news headlines, social networking, and banking are all examples of content that succeeds on the Mobile Web because real people using mobile phones in their daily lives find this information to be relevant, local, and immediately available.

About the author

Gail Rahn Frederick is an expert web developer and software architect in the mobile industry. Her products target 500+ device models and have been deployed at 10+ mobile operators in North America and Europe. She advocates standards-based mobile development techniques as a blogger and conference presenter. Gail teaches standards-based mobile web development in Portland, Oregon. Her students learn mobile markup languages, mobile design and usability, content adaptation, best practices, advanced web development for smartphones and defensive programming for the mobile ecosystem.