A partner. With access to all the devices. And with real and virtual devices spread accross the globe.

This company http://www.synap.se/index.html provided a platform to us for device management. If they can't help, I suspect they will know who will.

Search for Lars Lingren @ synapse.se on this site. [recommended!]

Best wishes.

GB

posted July 8, 2008

First pass of testing: use an emulator on the computer. Really, this is just for developer-level testing and debugging.

Second pass of testing: use a small number of devices in house, preferably over more than one network. Get an array; make sure they are not all iPhones; if your market has some dominant device (e.g., RAZR, S40, etc.) then be sure you have one of those.

Third pass of testing: use Device Anywhere (or similar) and/or Mob4Hire (or similar). This gets you on real networks in real countries with real devices. And yes, Device Anywhere is real devices on real networks; you just have to use a web interface to access the device.

Optional: invest millions of dollars in a testing facility with connections piped in from various operators, but accessed locally on your own corporate tower. Continue your investment as technologies and stuff changes.

Optional, #2: replicate Device Anywhere. They really need competition so the prices can go down.

Links:

• http://deviceanywhere.com/
• http://www.mob4hire.com/

posted July 8, 2008

Hi Anne-Marie,

General speaking. You need to work with me and my company *^_^*. However, you may not like to do that. Let me share some experience with you then.

You can test mobile applications via
1. MobileComplete www.deviceanywhere.com
2. Mob4Hire www.mob4hire.com

We have been working with MobileComplete for quite a while. Their service is great and working very well. We use DeviceAnywhere to test our US customers' application on various handsets and platforms.

Mob4Hire is another option for you, which i can not provide more information about it right now. We have about 60 real handsets over China Mobile and China Unicom. If you need, we can help you test your application in China with local carriers.

Jackey

Jackey Y. also suggests this expert on this topic:

• Paul P.

posted July 8, 2008

I'm confused,

I thought you meant; testing an application which runs on a handset under many many different circumstances (carrier, network, connectivitity modes) to see if all the designed functionalities would remain working.

Everybody here seems to take your question to the "trans-network" level (in other words; Services provided by the carrier to the customer).

These two interpretations are veryh different questions, could you clarify somewhat more?

greetz Mykel

posted July 9, 2008

I have done this for various clients, including Nokia

1) a website (and wap site?) to capture data

2) a database of handset criteria to filter supported handsets and which application, etc they may be served,

3) an OTA server to serve the right content to the right phone, and
preferably install a unique ID per installation to track users with multiple handsets, issues with re-installing, etc

4) I highly trained chimp to trawl over the data :-)

Christian

Links:

• http://www.mobilekillerapp.com

posted July 11, 2008

We have a global network of test labs and an inventory of 2500+ devices to address this issue for our clients. Testing on the actual branded devices in the actual users handsets in the actual network environment customers will be in is an important final acceptance test for any major network-connected mobile application launch.

Typical areas where testing will need to be focused on are:

- Device compatibility - a whole host of issues from "does the app UI display correctly?" to "how does the application behave when the device receives an SMS?"

- Branded device variations - most often around installation and permissions issues caused when operators customise security models or remove root certificates from their devices

- Network compatibility - vitally important now with so many client-server dependent apps. Problems with port blocking, comms timeouts, data plan restrictions and many other network configuration related issues should be checked for

- Localisation - can be tested in-market or carried out separately

posted July 11, 2008

The only place you need to go is DeviceAnywhere. They will also give you free credits to test out their system. Go to this link to get more info:

http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/07/deviceanywhere_--_a_walk_through_of_the_developers_godsend.html

I am not connected to DeviceAnywhere in any capacity, but have used their services with great success.

I think after you go to the above link you will be in awe of how easy this question was to answer.

Links:

• http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/07/deviceanywhere_--_a_walk_through_of_the_...

posted July 11, 2008