Look and Feel

Mobile devices, especially mobile telephones are continuing to gain acceptance as targets for multimedia-rich applications. Mobile phones in particular have become an indispensable work tool within most companies. There is little doubt that software developers and manufacturers will continue the drive to bring the functionality and features found on PC’s and laptops to mobile devices.

What is a Rich Content Application or Rich Internet Application?

A rich internet application is where desktop applications and browser-based clients converge. They combine the strengths of both domains while liberating the user from their respective constraints. A rich Internet application is referred to as a lightweight application that has a subset of the functionality and feature set that a desktop application has. The user interface may run in a web browser or some other application run time.

Why are Rich Internet Applications important to business?

As bandwidth availability and quality has grown it has increased cost-effective connectivity. This has resulted in increased adoption and therefore increased market reach. For businesses this means that employees are no longer bound to a desktop system.

With the volume of structured and unstructured data growing within organizations there is a growing need for a way to facilitate how your workforce gets access to that data in a seamless, flexible and intuitive way. There is no doubt that the ability to access information quickly and fluidly any time in any place will become a more and more vital component to a business’s long term success and productivity. Customer Service is another area of a business that can greatly benefit from rich internet applications. They are being successfully used to reduce the number of calls that come into a customer service call center by offering things such as interactive videos and tutorials online, 3D images that can be rotated to match what a customer is seeing in the real world, hot spots that allow one to zoom in and get more detailed information and real time data and information sharing.

Almost all new mobile phones are also good digital cameras, mp3/4 players, web browsers and game consoles and although many applications have been written for these various devices there is still a significant gap between PC applications and mobile applications. The difference lies in the lack of processing capacity in mobile devices as well as the libraries that have been written for them. One of the drivers behind the escalating use of mobile devices is the fact that people in general are spending more and more time in transit causing long periods of time when a person is without access to their PC. In other cases a person may have difficulty accessing their laptop. People are relying on their cell phones and PDA’s to stay connected.

This has driven companies and organizations to target mobile devices to get out their messages. In spite of their popularity there is still a huge gap between the number of programmers who write visually and functionally acceptable mobile applications quickly or cost effectively.

Enter the mobile content management system. It is safe to say that consumers want the media rich web content they can access on their PC’s and laptops on their mobile devices as well. The real question is how can this best be achieved in a time and cost efficient manner.

Accelerated Design is ready to help design new front ends for your application to allow for rich content applications that work for your business and your customers. Don’t be left behind! Take advantage of custom software that will move your business to the next level and engage your customers in new and exciting ways! Complete our contact form to get started.