At the Mobile Camp NYC2 I attended also a great session called Mobile widgets. The presenters were from
Wirelessvisions and they started the session with a summary of Mobile widget platforms. Here a few notes (sorry if they are confusing):
- Existing widgets can be copied and distributed through mobile (e.g. Yahoo Go cannot be syndicated).
- Mobile Technolgy is based on OS MIDP/2.0. Open to third party maybe at a later point. WebWag Mobile / Opera Widgets, XML HTML, CSS, Javascript. Opera only S60 or Windows Mobile open to third party
Then the team explained Mobile Widget development and the issues of doing that:
- Device Screen
Often the problem is the Device screen ( typical 320×240 Pixel, little Ram, Space)
There are two ways to approach this: Miniaturize or mobilize site’s content.
- Issue Input mechanism
Keypad, touch screen, trackball, keypad/d-pad all work differently and need to be taken in consideration
-Device support
J2mE support is different on different mobile devices. Difficult to port from phone to phone
testing on actual devices
- Site access from mobile device.
Currently complex mobile webadresses, that are not very helpful. Solution could be using a .mobi web adress.
-Mobile device detection
should be switched on. Still there are device fragmanatation issues
- Widget footprint
Strip images to lower bandwiths consumption
Strip CSS/HTML elements not compatible with device to lower bandwith consumption
Cache or not to cache 9
- Media support
No standardized platform for flash /video
Current media support youtube gadget, sprinttv
facebook portal.
-Wiget viral marketing
Basic social networking tools
myblog log reader roll widget
Widgets as advertising medium
Incentive to access content works great, Smartlink widgets
Rockyou ad network / Widget trends
Groupware awareness widgets
Widgets augments as users views of the workplace with info about the workplace the location and ther action withn the workplace,
Chipin widgets for personal fundraising.
Rich from Clearspring jumps in and explains their system and how they developed a trackable cross platform widget (which is exactly what I need 
)
Thanks for this event goes to all these guys… Alexis , Peter Nofelt , David , Dean, Matt, Marshall, Rich the guy from Mblox, Megaphone and another 180 people.
