Software Testing Blog

If you’re in the market for a new mobile device (and these days, who isn’t?) one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make is whether to choose the physical keypad or the touchscreen.

As we learned from our most recent What Do uThink poll, most mobile users actually want both of them. In fact, 70% of respondents said they would prefer a device like the Motorola Droid or the Blackberry Torch, as opposed to the 20% who said they preferred the physical keypad only (e.g. Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Bold) and 10% for the virtual touchscreen (e.g. the iPad, iPhone, etc).

So, 70% of mobile users can”t be wrong, can they? Let’s take a look a few of the arguments (from the uTest Forums thread) in favor of each, then decide for yourself.

Physical Keypad
“I go with Physical keypad. The reason is I have experienced problems while using touchscreen keys. I love Physical keypad which allows me to type the message fast and call the number much quicker than a touchscreen. Also, my LG Android had gone for service because the touch screen was malfunctioning. For instance, when I pressed 3, it used to display 6.”

Hybrid
“I prefer a hybrid model as it gives me independence to use the phone as per my convenience. Also, it makes things much easier for me. If I have to chat or SMS I can use the keyboard feature, but if I have to punch in a phone number or username/password I can do it from touchscreen. Plus, different situations demand things differently so a hybrid model is a perfect one for me.”

Read more…

The mobile wars are heating up! Microsoft is aggressively luring app developers for its Windows Phone 7 OS, while Android quietly gains market share. Blackberry expects big things out of OS 6, while The Big Apple deals with antenna issues, the yellow screen of death and the (remote) possibility of a recall. Interesting times indeed.

As part of our newly-launched “What Do uThink?” series (more on this shortly), we decided to ask our community which mobile OS they considered to be the best. Here are the results:

1. Android – 38%
2. RIM Blackberry – 28%
3. Apple – 16%
4. Symbian – 12%
5. Windows Mobile – 6%

“What do uThink?” is a weekly poll, where we’ll be asking the uTest community their preferences and feedback on various apps, operating systems and other technologies. To encourage voting, we’ll be awarding monthly and quarterly prizes to randomly selected participants. This quarter, for instance, we’re giving away an iPod Touch. The weekly polls open every Tuesday afternoon and voting takes place in the uTest Forums available to registered testers) as well as on our Facebook page. Got it?

Good. Now back to the mobile OS results…

Read more…

Safe to say that mobile app development has greatly outpaced mobile app testing over the last few years. In other words, while the applications and platforms have seen tremendous technological advances (iPhone 4 bugs notwithstanding) the same cannot be said of mobile testing methodologies.

Case in point: The majority of mobile app developers remain overwhelmingly reliant on internal beta testing.

Here with proof is VisionMobile, who recently published a fascinating report on the growing mobile app ecosystem – a must-read for anyone involved in the space (developers, marketers, users, etc). From a QA point of view, the report further establishes that although testing innovations will ALWAYS trail those of development, the gap need not be so wide.

Here’s an excerpt that sums the whole thing up:

Internal beta testing is the most popular technique used by the vast majority (nearly 70 percent) of respondents, with beta testing with users and peer reviewing the next most popular techniques. Only 20 percent of respondents use focus groups or research of their own. Overall, North American developers are somewhat more sophisticated in their application planning, with 97 percent using beta testing as a standard part of application development and with broader use of a portfolio of planning techniques as well.

Yet, small development firms have limited means today to beta test and peer review their applications with a crosssection of representative users. Given the hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, we believe that efficient (crowd-sourced) testing of apps in a global market of users is considerably under-utilized. This presents an opportunity for the few solution providers in this segment – Mob4Hire and uTest.com, for example – but also for network operators, who can generate a channel for testing applications with end users, and provide an open feedback support system back to developers.

Other notable findings included:

Read more…

Worldwide productivity surely took a nose-dive today, as thousands of worker bees (like me) discovered that Google was featuring the classic Pac-Man arcade game on its ever-changing homepage. What began as a scholarly search for “regression testing tips” quickly devolved into “five” minutes of ghost-chomping fun – but don’t tell my boss.

In honor of Pac-Man’s 30th birthday, Google developed the application (in what we presume is HTML5) to look, sound and behave just like the original version from 1980. [UPDATE: Here's how to download the Pac-Man game for free] We’re not yet sure if this includes the infamous Pac-Man kill-screen bug, but I am determined to find out. I’ll work nights and weekends if that’s what it takes. That’s just the kind of dedicated employee I am.

Anyway, since we’re a software testing company, many of us in the office were curious to see how the application would perform on the various mobile devices we have in-house. Here’s a quick run-down of our findings for each device, including whether or not it worked, along with a few notes:

Read more…

Like a rocket ship breaking the bounds of Earth’s gravity… like a bird soaring majestically over the open sunlit plains… like a spit wad hurled from the back of the classroom… today, uTest announced the launch of MobileAppTesting.com.  You can also follow our wit and wisdom on Twitter @mobile_app_test.

One thing that you won’t find on this site are ads, subscriptions, hooks or any kind of commercial agenda (don’t tell our investors!).  In fact, we created this site simply because mobile is the next frontier of app development and testing – and the fastest-growing segment of uTest’s business. So we wanted to give something back to mobile app developers, testers and entrepreneurs — and have a little fun at the same time.

We’ll will work with partners, pundits and pioneers (actively seeking co-conspirators) to create original, thought-provoking content about the entire mobile app ecosystem — from app developers to device makers to wireless carriers.  Whether it’s the apps arms race, the constant carrier battles, or the next must-have device, MobileAppTesting.com will be there with equal parts education and entertainment.

This site features user-generated content, contests, product reviews and guest interviews with mobile execs… stuff you can’t find anywhere else, including:

Hard-earned lessons for entrepreneurs, techies and investors who want to create world-class mobile apps

Overcoming obstacles unique to developing and testing apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian

Breaking news and product reviews (for apps, devices, networks and more) from top bloggers and journalists on the front lines of the mobile app explosion

Interviews from people who live it, offering their insights from the worlds of mobile app marketing, design, development and testing

Following uTest to mobile industry conferences, networking events, speaking opps and meet-ups

Want to be published on MobileAppTesting?  Have a topic you want us to tackle?  Feel the need to ask what the heck we think we’re doing?  Shoot us a note or drop a comment.

If media coverage equaled market share, then I’d be writing this post from my iPhone (I’m not) and every single one of you would be reading it from your shiny new iPad (you’re not).  In case you haven’t been near a TV… or a computer… or a radio… or people… you’re aware that Apple launched a new product last week called the iPad.

And with the apparent ubiquity of the iPhone, one can only assume that Apple’s mobile market share hovers somewhere between 97% and 109%.  Unless, of course, you look at those pesky “statistics”, which is exactly what the fine folks at Comscore do each month. As  Jason Kincaid (@jasonkincaid) discussed recently, the latest mobile market share stats might surprise you:

Read more…

Whenever you put a bunch of big brains with vast expertise about a still-evolving industry in the same room, you’re bound to get some interesting and impassioned debates.  Such was the case at Monday’s pre-conference sessions at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. There were a number of excellent speakers representing the perspectives of OEMs like Nokia and LG; carriers like Verizon and AT&T; and content providers like Travelocity and MTV.

I sat in on several of these sessions and heard a number of important topics being discussed that will have major implications for the future of mobile apps and mobile commerce.  These debates included:

• Android vs. iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. Symbian
• Free vs. Paid apps
• OEM app stores vs. Carrier app stores

But perhaps the most interesting, fierce and recurring debate that I heard at CTIA was around the topic of… Read more…

Nick Jones over at Gartner wrote a great piece about the current state of mobile apps.  It’s a must-read for mobile app developers and marketers.

His post is written about the iPhone, but it applies equally to Android, Blackberry or Symbian apps.  It also helps to explain why mobile apps have been the fastest growing segment of the uTest biz (phenomenal growth + still evolving market = a lot of testing to do).

Here are a few realizations from his recent trip to his local Apple store that seemed especially relevant for our readers (bullet points are his and the running commentary is mine) :

Read more…

With the summer sun finally paying us a visit in Boston, so too is the mobile testing space heating up out here! Tomorrow (7/16), Doron Reuveni will be speaking at the 2009 Software Industry Conference (SIC) at the Boston Marriott Quincy on how crowdsourcing is helping companies test their mobile apps.

With the new iPhone 3G S, Blackberry Storm 2, and the new Palm Pre, the smartphone apps competition is fiercer than ever! Mobile app developers are battling for media attention, consumer dollars, VC investments and more.

But, status quo testing doesn’t quite work for mobile apps. Multiple testing criteria — such as wireless carriers, handset makers and models, locations, languages, platforms — all must be taken into account. With crowdsourcing, any mobile app company can have world-class QA coverage.

In his session, Doron will examine the growing trend of crowdsourced software testing for mobile apps – highlighting its benefits, challenges and uses as compared with conventional QA options.

If you’re in town and want to meet up, shoot us a note!

Our guest blogger this month is Brad Sellick, a recent Bug Battle winner with expertise in mobile testing (see his full bio below). In this post, Brad examines the shortfalls of simulation tools in testing mobile applications.

There’s a challenge in developing and testing applications that is as old as the personal computer itself. The challenge being that the design, development, and testing of applications often takes place in an environment much different from “the real world” where users run and interact with those applications.

With the rise of mobile platform devices like the Blackberry and iPhone, I believe that challenge is greater now than at any time in the past. We now find ourselves producing applications in an environment (a desktop or laptop computer) that is completely different from the device the application will run on.

This challenge is compounded by the fact that development platforms have a very convenient method of testing a mobile application on the desktop via a simulator tool.

My own experience with iPhone development was a major eye-opener. I spent a lot of time building and testing applications on my Mac desktop and the simulator application. However, when I finally loaded an application onto an iPhone for the first time, it was a completely different experience.

Read more…