So with that in mind, here are 12 questions whose  answers will shape the app universe (and thus, the testing landscape) in 2012:

1. Will we finally find a better way to vet apps than app store ratings?
2. Is Flash really and truly dead in the mobile app space?
3. What’s the next big wave in the ever-growing sea of SoLoMo?
4. Web-enabled TVs:  here or hype?
5. Will Android keep winning such rapid market share from iOS?
6. Is this the year the mobile wallet hits the U.S. mainstream?
7. How will netizens find what they need — search or social?
8. Can developers finally forget about IE6?  How about IE7?
9. Will Amazon’s app store plans fly or flop?
10. Where do tablets go from here?
11. Which direction will the IPO and VC markets turn?
12. After watching Uber battle taxis, and AirBnB take on hotels, which mature industry will be next to get disrupted in a big way (fwiw, my money is on medical and education, though the latter may take longer)?

So what’s your take — which of these issues will have the biggest impact on devs, testers and users in 2012?  Put on your fortune telling hat and share your prediction to that question in the comments below.

And happy 2012 to us all. Let’s enjoy this next (last?) year in the apps universe!

We’re 17 days away from the new year, and far before Auld Lang Syne begins playing and we pretend to know the words (after all the champagne, who can remember the lyrics we optimistically Google’d the day before anyways?), we’re pondering what changes are in store for us the next twelve months.

In a whitepaper released by ABI Research this week, their tech analysts took a collective look into the crystal ball for 2012 and (in their words) “have drawn some bold lines in the sand on a plethora of top-of-mind topics.”

But instead of predicting what WOULD happen in the mobile and telecom space, they took a different spin on the usual list and forecasted what WOULDN’T happen.  Nice twist.  (And a really good read.)

One of their more interesting predictions for those of us in software testing is by Patrick Connolly, Senior Analyst of Telematics and Navigation:  “Indoor location will NOT become commonplace in 2012.” 

It’s easy to see how this could be true…but also surprising.

After all, for as many articles that have been written about the technological challenges in making Indoor Location Based Services (LBS) a reality, there has been an equal amount of big name, big buzz announcements about it over the past few months.  There are dozens of industry-leading companies—including Apple, Navteq, Qualcomm and Nokia—tackling the challenge from every angle.

There are even some major apps launching to give Indoor LBS a jolt from vision to reality.  For instance, Google announced on their Mobile blog in November that the new Google Maps 6.0 gives users (on Android OS 2.1 mobile devices) the ability to Map the Vast Indoors, vis-à-vis:

“When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall, retail store, or other public space, Google Maps 6.0 for Android brings the freestanding map directory to the palm of your hands –helping you determine where you are, what floor you’re on, and where to go indoors. For example, in this busy travel season, you can use Google Maps 6.0 to help you find your way around airports.”

So what does Connolly think we can expect in 2012?  He proposes that there will be “isolated mobile applications and services around individual high-traffic public areas like airports and malls.”

For software testers, the proliferation of LBS (indoor and out) means it’s becoming ever critical to move a portion of the testing out of the lab and into the wild so apps can be tested in real world conditions.  After all, if LBS is inaccurate inside a mall by 100 feet—and the store we’re trying to find (hello, Cinnabon!) isn’t anywhere near where we thought it was– it might as well be off by a mile.  The ball is increasingly in our court to make sure this cool, new tech is a consumer delight… not a dud.

As an industry, we’re on the cusp of some exciting indoor location, tracking, mapping, and navigation apps that will enrich the user experience.  And we’re playing a critical role in making it possible.

We’ll toast to that.

• Samsung Galaxy Mini
• HTC Desire
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
• HTC Wildfire
• Samsung Epic 4G
• LG Optimus S
• Samsung Galaxy S
• Motorola Droid X
• LG Optimus One
• Motorola Droid 2
• HTC Evo 4G

Those 12 phones pose the highest security and privacy risks for users, according to Bit9, a company focused on software end-point protection. Interestingly, all 12 poor performers are Androids. Harry Sverdlove, Bit9 CTO, told PCWorld that the reason Android poses more of a risk than iOS is because of the wide-spread nature of Android over manufactures, models and carriers. Here’s what Harry had to say to PCWorld about how the study was done and why the results are what they are:

In compiling the list, Bit9 researchers looked at three things: the market share of the smartphone, what out-of-date and insecure software the model had running on it and how long it took for the phone to receive updates.

In gathering information for the study, the researchers were astonished by the state of the Android ecosystem. “What was surprising for us was really the extent of the chaos and the fragmentation that exists in the Android ecosystem itself, and the way that the Android smartphones are distributed and more importantly, the way that security updates are done,” Bit9 CTO Harry Sverdlove told PC World.

The researchers found that 56 percent of Android phones in the marketplace today are running out-of-date and insecure versions of the operating system. Buying a new phone doesn’t skirt that problem, either. In some cases, the researchers discovered, phones contained software as much as 300 days old out of the box.

“If there are vulnerabilities and you’re sitting on a phone that hasn’t been updated for six months, that’s an eternity for a hacker,” Sverdlove declares. “All that time, you’re that much more at risk of being infected, of having your personal information stolen, of becoming a victim to some sort of malicious activity.”

Read the full article at PCWorld >>>

In the meantime, if you’re looking to purchase a smartphone for the holidays, take your time and do your homework. Ensuring you have a phone that receives regular updates and protects your private data will be well worth the sacrifice of missing Black Friday.

Unfortunately, my four-year-old has already implored me to take down the skeleton and spiders hanging in the doorway because they’re going to scare away Santa.  So, rather than arguing the salient fact that Santa shimmies down the chimney versus ringing the doorbell, I’ve officially started morphing decor from the marvelous macabre to merry old Saint Nick.  Kids: 1. Mom: 0.

Nonetheless, the fact hasn’t escaped me that we’re two weeks away from Cyber Monday (November 28th), an occasion that online retailers have been planning for months.  Since summer, global brands and independent e-tailers have been testing and re-testing their mobile apps and web sites for functionality, usability, localization glitches and possible bottlenecks in site performance that could jeopardize their revenue potential.

Moreover, the ante has been upped now that the iPad and other tablets have entered the scene.  Online retailers that spent the last few years optimizing their mobile apps and porting them to additional platforms like Android, are now going through the process from scratch with tablets.  Not only are the specs non- standardized, varying significantly by manufacturer, device and network performance like smartphones.

But user behavior on iPads and tablets is very different than on smartphones.  Tablets require a completely different design strategy based on the high-resolution screen, the added real-estate that allows for more merchandising (but tempts marketers into overly cluttered UX’s and drop-down menus), and even the finger-swipe ability and need for larger buttons.  In the end, it equates to more need than ever for sophisticated testing, tweaking (in design and functionality), and testing again.

As Jason Ankeny wrote in FierceMobileContent this week, “The holidays are coming, and this year, there are essentially two types of people: Those adding tablet devices to the top of their wish list, and those who already own tablets–and plan to use them to complete their seasonal shopping tasks.”

So how many mobile—tablet and smartphone–consumers are we talking about?  Well, according to Prosper Mobile Insights’ Mobile Survey published last month, here’s a data slice suggesting what tech executives, brand managers, and QA teams should expect for the 2011 holiday season:

Somewhat/Very Likely to Purchase Products on Mobile Device (Mobile Holiday Shoppers)

• Thanksgiving Day: 30.1%
• Black Friday: 66.9%
• Saturday after Thanksgiving: 58.6%
• Sunday after Thanksgiving: 48.6%
• Cyber Monday: 63.5%

Mobile isn’t a “nice to have” to bring home independent and global brands’ year-end sales.  It’s a gamechanger.

Today, Alex Schmelkin wrote in “Best Practices for Tablet Commerce” on Business2Community’s site: “Ultimately, with the explosive forecast being what it is for tablets, retailers will need to continue improving their t-commerce UX optimization. Online merchants must recognize the looming changes in consumer habits and prepare for a tablet based future or proceed with negligible modifications at their peril.”

So the question for every online retailer is, Are you ready?

According to CNET:

“Developers who created their apps specifically to run on Honeycomb-based tablets will need to tweak their APKs (Android packages) to either prevent or support their installation on smaller-screen devices.

The [Google Android developers] blog also offered some recommendations for tablet app developers on how to ensure that their design of the Action Bar widget works on smaller handsets.”

Additionally, be on the look out for the release of the ICS SDK, rumored to be available in a matter of weeks. According to Google:

“We haven’t released the ICS SDK just yet, but you can start preparing your Honeycomb apps by thinking about how they should work on smaller screens.”

Well, it’s just enough to whet anyone’s appetite! We shouldn’t have to wait too much longer before we learn more. For now, I’ll save this dessert for later.

iOS developers love iOS (of course), and as recently as 2008, 50% of them were also OS X developers. But today, that percentage has dropped to 7%, and most iOS developers are now actively developing for other platforms instead (including the iPad). This makes a lot of sense – the skillset for developing a mobile application has become more and more specialized, and the developers who can do that well may not have the skills or interest in developing for a desktop platform.

But the data holds other clues as well. For example, almost half of iOS developers also develop for Android. And even though all the developers think iOS is the best platform for monetization (they were attending WWDC after all), 40% of them thought Android was the platform with the greatest potential for future growth. By the way, that question included iOS as an option as well, meaning that 40% of iOS developers attending WWDC actually thought Android was going to grow faster than iOS.

What other platforms did these developers think would have any chance of growing in the coming years? The only other one that made the list was Windows Phone 7 with 9% of respondents. That’s small, but interesting. Microsoft could have something good on their hands.

More details from Fortune and Macrumors.

Even though Motorola formally stated today (see MoCoNews article) that Jha’s comments were essentially misconstrued and didn’t accurately reflect his intentions, the issue has remained a lightning rod for debate.

But for those of us in the software testing community, there’s a truly, positive message embedded in this issue:  Motorola was validating the critical importance of QA testing in the app development process.  

After all, consider Jha’s statement that, “one of the good and problematic things about Android is that it’s very very open. So anyone can put applications, third-party apps, on the market without any testing process….For power consumption, CPU utilization, some of those things, those applications are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has.”

For professional software testers, that confirms how important our work is, and actually suggests that the scope of mobile testing should be expanded.

Essentially, Jha wasn’t really referring to functional testing.  Or testing exclusively in the “clean and ideal” conditions of a lab environment.  Instead, he was describing the need for usability testing in the real-world to subjectively examine how apps and devices perform in live conditions and affect the user experience.  For instance, did the app run sluggishly?   Did it seriously tax the battery life?  These are vital questions, particularly for apps heavy on audio and video. 

At the end of the day, consumers are unlikely to differentiate whether their frustration over poor performance is caused by the smartphone or the app…or the interaction of both.  They just want to have a great experience with their new mobile “toy” or get their work done. 

Because if there isn’t enough testing on every device that the app is developed for, then (as Jha said) the smartphone gets returned and everyone– including the app publisher–loses out.

Designed for startups, Express helps young companies validate the quality & performance of their mobile apps, as well as speed up their app store approval process. Think of Express as a time machine for mobile app developers: they can transport a month or two into the future to see what type of ratings their apps will likely receive and if there are any major defects — before they launch.

Whether you’ve built an app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, WinMo or Symbian, Express makes it easy to get real-world testing and expert feedback that meets your needs and budget. Oh, did we forget to mention that plans start at only $499? That’s half of what you probably spent on Red Bull and Starbucks while you were building your location-based, freemium, socially-linked, caffeine-free, voice-powered, 3D, virtual reality, highly-addictive, semantic-searching, gaming-layered, hybrid-powered, native app, right?.

For each project, uTest handpicks members of its tester community from North America who best match the testing requirements and have the right mobile devices and operating systems. The customer’s mobile application is then tested professionally on real devices across real carriers, providing real-world testing results and expert feedback that aren’t possible with emulators, simulators or remote access.

At the conclusion of each project, customers receive a list of well-documented bugs, including screenshots and videos with steps to reproduce them. They also receive expert feedback from the testers about the application – including app ratings and feedback for interface design, usability, app performance and more. To learn more about how it works,  watch this brief Product Tour.

Here are a few key features of the service:

• Cost-Effective: With three testing packages available, uTest Express offers mobile app testing to fit any startup budget;
• Easy-to-Use: A simple interface walks customers through a series of questions to identify their testing needs and facilitate the creation of the testing project;
• Professional Testers: Testers are selected from our community of 35,000+ professional testers;
• Real Devices and Carriers: Testing on real devices and real carriers – no emulators, simulators or remote access
• All Major Mobile Platforms Available: uTest Express is available for all mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian;
• Accessible 24/7: Customers can access their testing projects on-the-go, using uTest’s downloadable app for the iPhone and iPad, or through the traditional browser-based interface.

The launch coincides nicely with our trip to CTIA Wireless – one of the largest mobile technology events in the world – so we’ll be spending the next few days talking to some of the most promising names in the business about this unique new service.

In the meantime, if you’re early-stage startup looking for an easy, affordable way of testing your latest mobile app (or your latest version), look no further than uTest Express.

Readers of the uTest Blog should know that ecommerce software (retail apps in particular) are a familiar topic of discussion. We also recently published a whitepaper on the subject, see Optimized E-Commerce. Today, guest blogger Michael Koploy of SoftwareAdvice.com offers up a list of the most useful retails apps for the iPhone and Android operating systems. So without further delay, here is this month’s guest post. Enjoy!

Whether you own a small retail chain or sell items out of your brother’s apartment, there’s an app for that. Developers are beginning to produce mobile tools to help retailers operate their businesses. These apps help with everything from clocking in to checking out a customer to creating sales reports.

But sorting through hundreds of apps and finding those true gems that can help run your business is difficult. iTunes doesn’t have a retail category — in addition to being far from search friendly. Meanwhile, the new web-based Android Marketplace is a little more search friendly, but the lack of a retail category again stands as a roadblock.

So, we put together a list of the best mobile apps for retailers. This list was the product of multiple keyword searches across various app categories, from productivity to business. Data of how many reviews, star-ratings, and approximate number of installs are provided, as available.

Be sure to let us know if you’ve found a helpful retail app that we’ve left off the list.

iPhone / iPad Apps

Cash Register (MyAppIdea) – 3.5 stars with 33 ratings | $1.99
Developed for iPhone. Keeps track of your inventory and acts as a virtual checkout. Simple interface tracks all transactions so you can easily total your sales and e-mail them to customers. Sales can also be exported to Excel. Can supports multiple businesses.

LightSpeed Mobile – 3 stars with 6 ratings | $4.99
Developed for iPhone. Mobile retail extension of the LightSpeed Point of Sale system for Mac. Connects with LightSpeed database to act as a mobile checkout. Works jointly with Linea Pro hardware to scan barcodes and swipe credit cards. Can support multiple businesses.

Ring it Up – 4 stars with over 300 ratings | $29.99
Developed for iPhone and iPad. Point-of-sale application that interfaces with numerous popular credit card applications and the RedLaser barcode app to act as a complete checkout terminal. Can send HTML & .PDF receipts/invoices to customers, import/export .CSV files, and backup/restore data. Can support multiple businsses.

Retail Math – 5 stars with 6 ratings | $1.99
Developed for iPhone. A useful tool for retailers looking to better understand the factors influencing their financial success. Contains a monthly sales and inventory tracker, financial planner based on past results, and can analyze monthly and seasonal factors. Formulas are accompanied with both explanations and calculators. Supports multiple companies.

SelBuk – 3.5 stars with 89 ratings | $19.99
Developed for iPhone and iPad. Provides the ability to email order receipts and analyze inventory, sales, and expenses. This app has the ability to import and export .CSV files so you can create and edit files on your computer and send them to the SelBuk mobile app. Product catalog, inventory, and order documents can all be backed up (and restored) to prevent data loss.

Intuit GoPayment Credit Card Terminal – 3 stars with over 1900 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone and Android. This app offers two different pricing models based on processing more or less than $1000 a month: no monthly plan and higher rates for under $1000, and a monthly plan with reduced rates for over. Provides the option for both swipe and keypad data entry, and offers support for a couple different card readers. Users can qualify for a free card reader on the Intuit website.

Pay Anywhere – Credit Card Machine – 4.5 stars with over 700 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone. After applying for a Merchant Account from North American Bancard, users receive a free card reader to pair with the app. Requires no monthly minimums or frees, and can be canceled at any time. Has the option to e-mail receipts to customers after transactions.

Square – 3.5 stars with over 7900 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Requires no monthly fees or contract and provides free Square credit card reader by mail after sign-up. Membership does require providing date of birth, SSN, and passing a credit check. Per transaction and weekly charge limits are determined by your credit score.

Swipe Credit Card Terminal – 3.5 stars with over 1000 ratings | $0.99
Developed for iPhone. PA-DSS certified, this app is one of the most secure credit card applications that supports most major credit cards. Offers rates as low as low as 1.74% + 24¢ per transaction at a $24.95 monthly fee. AppNinjas’ Credit Card Swiper (available here) for iPhones and iPod Touches is $79.99.
Android AppsPoint of sale (POS) – 3.5 stars with 33 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free
This application acts as a simple point-of-sale solution for android devices. Has the ability to manage goods, complete transactions, and process returns.

Inventory Droid – 4.5 stars with over 160 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | $4.99
Packaged with a free PC extension, Inventory Droid is a great app for managing store inventory. Can use the integrated barcode scanner to quickly upload and update inventory information. Comes with the ability to backup and restore data.

CHARGE Anywhere® Payment App – 4.5 stars with 7 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Accepts cash, credit, check, or ACH payments for $9.99/month plus per-transaction fees. Can integrate with optional Bluetooth module to swipe credit cards and print receipts. Also features reporting, the ability to tax and tip, and QuickBooks integration.

Credit Card Machine – 4 stars with 20 ratings | 5,000 – 10,000 installs | Free*
Can swipe credit cards and print receipts via external device (not included). Processes all major credit cards and creates a viewable transaction log with history details. Includes option for touch screen signatures. Requires Paynet Systems Merchant Account.

Credit Card Terminal – 4 stars with 25 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Allows user to process credit card transactions at a rate of $25.00/month, 24¢/transaction, and 2.09% qualified. No termination fees for cancellation.

Intuit GoPayment – 4 stars with 68 ratings | 10,000 – 50,000 installs | Free*
Developed for iPhone and Android. This app offers two different pricing models based on processing more or less than $1000 a month: no monthly plan and higher rates for under $1000, and a monthly plan with reduced rates for over. Provides the option for both swipe and keypad data entry, and offers support for a couple different card readers. Users can qualify for a free card reader on the Intuit website.

Square – 4.5 stars with over 4,000 ratings | 100,000 – 500,000 installs | Free*
Developed for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Requires no monthly fees or contract and provides free Square credit card reader by mail after sign-up. Membership does require providing date of birth, SSN, and passing a credit check. Per transaction and weekly charge limits are determined by your credit score.

USAePay – 4 stars with 14 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Can integrate with bluetooth devices for card swiping and receipt printing. Includes mobile POS option that can sync inventory with sales transactions. USAePay account required for use.

Ratings and prices were found from the Android Market and iTunes App Store, respectively.

This guide was provided by Michael Koploy of Software Advice, a free resource that provides reviews and comparisons of point of sale systems. The original guide can be viewed at Best Retails Apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices. For more, be sure to visit www.softwareadvice.com/retail/.

HTC’s ‘Facebook Phones’ ChaCha & Salsa

“The two phones have been ‘built to be entirely social,’ according to the press release.  The devices, which run on Google’s Android operating system, come with a ‘context-aware’ Facebook button that lights up when it recognizes the opportunity to share content on Facebook.  Users can share photos, websites, music, check-ins to different locations, status updates, and other options with one click.“

Sony Ericsson’s PlayStation Phone

“The Xperia Play is an Android phone where the slide-out keyboard has been replaced by slide-out PlayStation controls for easy gaming. Yesterday, Sony announced the Xperia Play would be available sometime this spring worldwide; in the U.S. it will be carried on Verizon. Some 50 games, many of them classics from the PlayStation One, will be ready at launch, according to Sony Ericcson. You’ll be able to buy them through a virtual PlayStation store, accessed via the Android Marketplace.“

Android: Fastest-Growing Mobile Platform

“Eric Schmidt told Mobile World Congress attendees that approximately 300,000 Android devices are now activated on a daily basis. According to Schmidt, the popular smartphone operating system remains the fastest-growing mobile platform in the world.“

HTC’s Flyer Tablet

“The device should really be flying with a 1.5 GHz CPU (single-core), 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage space (further expandable). It also features a 1024 x 600 7-inch screen, a 5-megapixel camera on the back and an additional 1.3-megapixel one on the front for video calls. It’s a powerful machine, but it does lack one thing its competitors have: Android Honeycomb.“

With more feature-rich smartphones and tablets being unveiled every day, device fragmentation is reaching an all-time high. What opportunities and challenges do you see this bringing to the testing world? Stay tuned for Day 3 of MWC!