Cloud computing is quickly moving beyond just the datacenter servers for supporting desktop users and into the mobile realm. In the process, this will mean more powerful and advanced applications for the end user. How is that possible? Devx explains it.
While it’s way too easy to get a brain-freeze every time you hear or read about cloud computing’s transformative this and oh-so-superlative that, developers of mobile apps have one solid reason to love the cloud — it can greatly simplify their lives. The cloud gives them a slice of code-cruncher heaven: an operating-source-agnostic platform to write an application once and make it work across multiple mobile platforms.
What’s not to like?
Mobile cloud applications move the computing power and data storage away from mobile phones and into the cloud, bringing apps and mobile computing not just to smartphone users but a wide spectrum of mobile subscribers.
The dominant force in mobile apps is likely to be cloud computing, according to ABI Research in its recent study, “Mobile Cloud Computing.” Cloud technologies will also make mobile apps more sophisticated, allowing them to be offered to a broader audience of mobile subscribers, ABI Research stated in its report.
The research firm further forecasts that the number of mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide will rise from 42.8 million in 2008, (approximately 1.1 percent of all mobile subscribers) to more than 998 million in 2014 (nearly 19 percent).