A few tips on SIM as an application platform

added by campbieil on July 6, 2009

This is a summary of the developing for the SIM session at the Marseille Mini WIPJam part of The Night/Day of the mobile 2.0

Reasons to work with operators:
* Marketing and promotion done by operators (especially useful if you do have limited marketing resources)
* Billing mechanism (Premium SMS, WAP)
* Device compatibility management done by operators
* Access to network APIs (Cell-Id)
* Distribution channels
Development options for developers:
* iPhone Cocoa
* Android Eclipse
* Microsoft (Visual Studio)
* Symbian (C/C++/Python/Perl)
* J2ME for most devices
* Web applications or mobile websites
* Flash lite
However one need to look at what % of phones actually support development environment (today Java and Flash are the most widely available platforms)
More and more important is the ability to use Device capability throug APIs (Bluetooth, GPS, contacts, PIM, Sensors), offline caching and usability. However more and more these functionalities are available on all development platforms, blurring the difference between rich clients and web clients, and make offline mode possible even for widgets and web apps.

Today the Appstore has >50,000 apps. Premium J2ME apps are >1000

One also needs to look at the number of phone with customised software by operator ,about 42% of devices have good customization, 28% a weak one, 30% have none. In an age where customers move frequently from operator to operator the SIM is the most stable platform to develop for.