An introduction to developing mobile applications with CFML, the rapid application development language. First the opportunity is established, areas of execution identified, and then resources on how to get started are explained.

1. Mobile Development
With ColdFusion
Vox Pop Design – http://voxpopdesign.com

2. Overview
• Why Mobile Development?
• Four Areas of Opportunity for Devs (3 for CF)
• How to Get Started (Standalone/3rd Party)
• Challenges Debugging
• Resources
• Q&A
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee/118885444/

3. Street Cred (Who Is Matthew Reinbold?)
• BS in Computer Engineering (SDSM&T)
• MBA with Emphasis in Emerging Technology Business
(University of Utah)
• Formerly of IBM, Microsoft, DigiTech, & MasterControl
• Founder & Creative Principal, Vox Pop Design
• Services used by Adobe , Sothebys, KUEN
• President, Salt Lake ColdFusion User’s Group
• Blog: voxpopdesign.com/bloomburst
• Twitter: twitter.com/libel_vox

4. Why Mobile?* (Dec 2008)
3.95 Billion Mobile Phone Users. Perspective:
• 850 million cars
• 950 million PCs (desktop + laptops)
• 1.2 billion landline telephones
• 1.3 billion Internet accessors
• 1.4 billion televisions
• 1.5 billion credit cards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3286068884/
* http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html

5. Why Mobile? ‐ Deux
• 75% per capita penetration in US
• Western Europe averages 110% (yes. 110%)
• China, India each add 6 million cell phones a month
• More people access web via phone than PC in China, Japan, South
Korea
• Phones Add Greatest GDP to a Country (no literacy needed)
• Phones are upgraded every 15 months (and shrinking – ave. 3.5
years for PC)
• Affordable (relatively)
• 1 in 5 US Households are cell phone only**
* http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html
** http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/05/11/center-for-disease-control-releases-report-on-wireless-families-one-in-five-fams-are-cellphone-only/

6. Four Opportunities for Developers
• Mobile OS (Insurgency? There’s an app for that)
• Voice (867‐5309eeeohhhnnnnine)
• Text (SMS, MMS)
• Mobile Web
(Browsers &
QR Codes)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/absolutely_loverly/3359266160/

7. Mobile OS – Marketshare Nov ’08*
• Symbian OS – 46.6% (Nokia, Japan)
• iPhone OS – 17.3%
• RIM Blackberry – 15.2%
• Windows Mobile – 13.6%
• Linux – 5.1% (China)
• Palm, BREW, Android, etc.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone pulled 2009-02-10

8. Mobile OS – Trent’s Analysis
‘The iPhone is THE most elegant, modern smartphone at
this point in time and it's perfect for what we want to do
with the NIN app ‐ except for the ludicrous approval
process, and that's what I want to draw attention to.
‘Android is cool, but nobody has an
Android phone. Blackberry is OK but the
hardware is inconsistent and WinMo
straight‐up sucks balls.’ – May 4th, ‘09

9. Mobile OS – Flash/AIR?
• iPhone – no Flash yet, maybe never*
• Flash Lite 3.1 (current) has feature parity with Flash 7
• Adobe Flash Lite Distributable Player**
• $10 Million Fund for Flash Apps **
• Full Flash on Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile,
Palm Pre in 2010*
* http://mashable.com/2009/02/16/flash-smartphones-iphone/
** http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/15/mobile-flash-apps-get-better-distribution-more-money/
Ex. Complete list of Flash Lite phones at http://www.adobe.com/mobile/pdfs/flash_lite_forecast_installed_base_jan09.pdf

10. Voice – Sample Applications
• Automated Tech Support
• Phone Directories
• Call Capture (Commercial IVR)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/exalthim/3242330704/

11. Voice – Demo
• Voiceshot Provides 800 Number, Can Do TTS,
XML‐RPC API, API Voicemail

12. Voice – Server Interaction
space/time graph

13. Text (SMS) – Examples
• Ski Utah Snow Report
• X96 Breaking News
• Obama’s Presidential Campaign (GigaOm):
– Conduct non‐intrusive surveys (e.g. are you registered to vote yet? what zip code are
you in?)
– On a state‐by‐state basis, send reminder messages about the cutoff dates for voter
registration and link to registration forms
– On a state‐by‐state basis, tell people to mail in their ballots to vote absentee
– Invite people to campaign events in their area code
– Remind people to get out and vote on Election Day (believe it or not, some people
forget, although you’d need to be hiding in a cave to miss this one)
– Promote down‐ballot candidates on a zipcode‐by‐zipcode basis

14. Text (SMS) – Examples Duex
• Ordering Subway in New York
• Register
• Text ‘menu’ to 466626
• Reply with Number of Sandwhich to Order
• Receive Text Confirmation and Pick Up time

15. Text (SMS) – Dedicated Short Codes
• Drawbacks are Cost and Time
• $1000/month for 5 or 6 character number of
your choice ($500 for random)
• Payment due up front
• Carrier Approval Can Take 3‐6 Months
• However, Dedicated Codes Have Greatest
Reliability, Support High Volume
• http://usshortcodes.com

16. Text (SMS) – Dedicated Short
Codes [ColdFusion SMS Gateway]
• Only ColdFusion 7 Enterprise Shipped with It
• All ColdFusion 8 Packages Now have It
• Gateway Tutorial
• In absence of Short Code can simulate
gateway interaction with SMSClient.bat
• … but…

17. Text (SMS) – Shared Short Codes
• Shared Number
• Specifiy Your App as Receiver with a ‘Keyword’
ie: Text ‘Hello [your planet]’ to [some number]
• Affordable and Developing as Soon as Credit
Card is Processed
• But May Be Suspended Because of Others
• Numerous Companies – TextMarks, mBill,
Club Texting

18. Text (SMS) – Demo
Mobivity
• Sign Up for Shared Short Code (95495)
• Register Desired Keywords
• Interact with ColdFusion through XML‐RPC
(XML exchanges over HTTP get)

19. Text (SMS) – Email to SMS
• Available for most North American Carriers
• Put Cell Phone # followed by carrier addy
• Some Examples:
– Verizon: [10‐digit phone number]@vtext.com
– AT&T: [10‐digit phone number]@cingularme.com
– Sprint: [10‐digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/276890512/

20. Text (SMS) – SMS by Twitter Proxy
• Twitter supports
SMS messaging
• ColdFusion and Twitter API: Ben Nadel –
KinkyTwits (CF and jQuery)
• HTML/JS/AIR and Twitter API: Yahoo Sideline
(source code available)

21. Text (MMS) – Still Relevant?
• Multimedia Messaging Service
• Allows for sending ‘attachments’ (video, pics)
• Loosing Favor?
– Unevenly Supported on Handsets
– Extra on Plans
– Cross Vendor Compatibility Issues (iPhone didn’t
even support it till OS 3.0)

22. Mobile Web
• Previously only for ‘Smart Phones’ (13.9%
increase in 2008*)
• Data Plan may be Needed and can be $$$
• Requires incredibly clean code optomized for
small screens
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpedro/2882551706/
* http://www.mobilephoneblog.org/2009/03/smartphone-sales-increase-139-in-2008.html

23. Mobile Web ‐ Browsers
• Opera Mini 4.2 (compressed result thru proxy,
limited JavaScript)
• iPhone Mobile Safari
• Internet Explorer Mobile 6
• Firefox Mobile (2010)
• Various WAP Browsers (while streamlined
lacks richness, detail)

24. Mobile Web ‐ Examples
• http://reader.google.com/m/
• http://bmw.mobi
• http://m.twitter.com

25. Mobile Web ‐ Challenges
• Small Screens (Images < 200px wide)
• Difficulty of Data Input
• Browser Inconsistancies
• Device Memory Limitations
• Unpredictable (ie. Slow)
Bandwidth
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb35/369380644/

26. Mobile Web – QR/SemaCode/Data Matrix
• Fantastic for briding phsyical media/digital
content divide
• Require a reader (often free)
• Can contain URLs, Messages, Phone Numbers

27. Mobile Web – QR Examples
• Dutch Government Health
Campaign
• Selling Hip Hop

28. Mobile Web – QR and ColdFusion
• Generate QR Codes From ColdFusion (and jsp)
http://www.servletsuite.com/servlets/qrcodetag.htm
• Great for any ‘real world’ tidbit that could be
supplimented with online offerings
(documents, billboards, bumper stickers, etc.)

29. Debugging – Challenges
• Voice, SMS: No Visual Output, Failure is Brutal
• Essential to Log Inputs, Outputs
• http://ready.mobi

30. Debugging – Adobe’s Device Central

31. Resources ‐ Books
• [theory] ‐ Cameron Moll, Mobile Web Design
• [theory] – Matt Jones & Gary Marsden, Mobile
Interaction Design
• [social effects] ‐ Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs
• [social effects] ‐ Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

32. Resources ‐ Groups
• Utah Mobile
Development Group
• Utah iPhone Developers
Group

33. Questions?
Do You Want to Be Part of a $1 Trillion Industry?
“Mobile messaging is worth about 130 billion dollars. Mobile
voice is worth about 600 billion dollars. The mobile data and
content industries are worth about 70 billion dollars. The total
mobile services industry is worth about 800 billion dollars. The
handsets business is worth about 150 billion, and the network
hardware rounds out the remainder, a bit under 50 billion, to
bring our total to one Trillion (1,000 Billion) dollars.”
‐ Tomi Ahonen – Dec, 2008
Matthew Reinbold
create@voxpopdesign.com
http://voxpopdesign.com