CIS 500
6/10/12
Mobile based applications are compact software programs that perform specific tasks for the mobile user. There are two types of mobile apps:
“The native app must be installed on the device; they either arrive pre-installed on the phone – these might include address book, calendar, calculator, games, maps and Web browser – or they can be downloaded from for free or a small fee from Web sites – today these sites are called app stores. Native apps are either written specifically for a type of handset – as many iPhone applications have been – so they can take more advantage of a phone’s functions, or as Java applications – this was the norm with download apps until recently – to run on many handsets.
The Web app resides on server and is accessed via the Internet. It performs specified tasks – potentially all the same ones as a native application – for the mobile user, usually by downloading part of the application to the device for local processing each time it is used. The software is written as Web pages in HTML and CSS, with the interactive parts in Java. This means that the same application can be used by most devices that can surf the Web (regardless of the brand of phone)”, (www.eweek.com).
Smartphone’s are extremely popular. Ninety-seven percent of all smartphone users use mobile applications. Fifty-eight percent of those smart phone users use location based applications. There were surveys done by a nonprofit global information security association called
ISACA (previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association). According to the survey taken by the ISACA , the location based activities were done via applications from smartphone using the users current locations was done fifty nine percent of the time but tagging photos on social media such as dating sites or facebook was done forty- four percent. There have been several mobile apps that capture geographical information, sim card
References: Android vrs Iphone, www.usatoday.com, 2012 Building mobile user experiences, www.expression.microsoft.com, 2012 Guidelines for making applications more secure, www.microsoft.com, 2012 Location based applications, www.eweek.com, 2012 New IBM Software helps strengthen security of mobile devices in the workplace, www.darkreading.com, 2012