Mobile application is the newest evolution in the technology domain. Every application/service provider wants' to make their presence on the mobile platform. You must have seen apps ranging from simple twitter/facebook to Mobile Banking clients on the mobile.

There are significant advantages of moving to mobile platform both for service providers and the users:

• Anywhere/anytime access:

  This means the users can use the apps whether they are in office or travelling in a plane or shopping at a mall as a opposed to desktop apps whether you need a computer/laptop which you may not carry all the time.

• More personalized services:

  With mobile service providers can provide more personalized services by utilizing the contextual information such as (users location, phone no, contacts etc.) For example today you can find many mobile apps that can suggest you nearest restaurant, Petrol pump, movies at nearby theaters etc.

• Possibilities driven by device capabilities:

  Today's newest devices provide amazing hardware capabilities such as touch & gestures, accelerometer, Bluetooth communication, camera. Application developers can leverage these capabilities in innovative ways to make scenarios possible like never before. Examples include bar code reader apps, music players that change the songs with just a shake, file sync software that can automatically sync photos/music to your desktop via Bluetooth

• Larger user base:

  There is a larger audience which uses mobile than computers (specially non-techie people like students, house-wives, teachers, workers etc.)

• Internet connectivity:

  With the internet connectivity getting easily available on the mobiles, business applications can provide new facilities that were not possible earlier. e.g. Recording a program to your set-top-box via mobile, handling bank account on mobile etc.

But along with these advantages there has been some challenges as well, some of them are discuss below:

• Vast variety of hardware:

  Mobiles come in all shapes and sizes. Each one has different capability in terms of processing power, screen size, memory, storage, battery life etc. Also some mobile provides more hardware features than others.

• Variety of development platforms:

  There is wide variety in the development platforms for the mobiles. Each of these are mostly mutually incompatible (that is, an application developed on one platform will not run on another) and furthermore each handheld device only supports one particular platform. This makes it difficult for a service provider to extend the reach of their applications.

• Mobile network limitations:

  Current infrastructural developments also impose some restrictions in terms of bandwidth availability, stability of connection and the coverage area issues. Besides this usage of application is also limited by the cost of the data service. With the new innovations in the network technologies such as 3G and wi-fi support in mobile, these limitations will be eliminated sooner or later.