Updating your mobile
applications in the field
Mobile applications that don't
update themselves are problems waiting to happen.
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Do your mobile applications automatically update themselves in the field? If not, well to put
it mildly, your mobile solutions are heading for trouble.
Desktop applications are easier than mobile applications in a variety of ways, including
handling updates. With a desktop application push comes to shove, you can send some IT zombie
out to every PC in your building - problem solved. Mobile applications are a bit more
complicated. The mobile devices might stay inside your facility or be distributed to hundreds
if not thousands of locations throughout the world. To complicate matters, mobile
applications are used every day in a variety of demanding situations where you would never
consider deploying a desktop application. Users count on their mobile tools, can't do their
jobs without them, and the last thing they want to worry about is 1) am I running the right
software and 2) do I have to install new software on this device thing that I don't
understand how it works to start with.
So now we are back to where we started - do your mobile applications automatically update
themselves in the field? Whenever you build a mobile solution you had better be figuring out
how you are going to do this seamlessly.
In the future, I'll be talking more about how you can handle updating mobile solutions. We'll
look at how to determine the needs of your mobile solutions and options for addressing
updates.
Until then remember one of the golden rules of mobile developement - mobile applications must
update themselves in the field.
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