Some of my most recent projects include development of Smartphone Apps or  applications for mobile devices. These little pocket super computers are becoming a way of life for millions of people and they present exciting opportunities for developers such as myself. They are making it possible to do things that could only be dreamt about just a few short years ago.

One of the biggest challenges for the developer is the fact that there are so many different platforms in use today. At the top of the market are the Android operating system running on many different devices and iOS found only on Apple products. In addition to this there a many other lesser used systems of which the Microsoft Windows OS may soon become a leading player.

So the problem that I face when developing a mobile app for the masses is which platforms to target or how to target multiple platforms? To address this problem I have been using the Adobe AIR system. Adobe have done for software what PDF files have done for documents. the idea is that you write the software once and then package it to run on many different platforms. A perfect solution you might think.

Well not quite a perfect solution because there are differences between platforms and the way that AIR behaves on them. This means that you end up tweaking the software to cater for the differences. That being said, I have managed to get my latest app working on both Android and iPhone devices. I will do more if the app is as successful as I hope it will be.

In my next posts I will tell you more about the app and how the development is progressing.