MIT Mobile Platform

Mobile Platform Services

• MIT Mobile Web– m.mit.edu– Hosts mobile “modules” for MIT services– Optimized for and accessible to all mobile browsers

• Native apps– iPhone and Android apps– Native-only features– Content comes from m.mit.edu

• Device Capability Detection Service (DCD)– Mobile-service-prod.mit.edu– Classifies mobile browsers by capability– Simplifies mobile development for all of MIT

A Brief History of MIT Mobile

Future-proof device support

• Mobile browsers are grouped into 3 “buckets”– Featurephone, Smartphone, and “Touch” (WebKit)

• m.mit.edu displays custom look for each bucket• Grouped via Device Capability Detection Service – mobile-service-prod.mit.edu– Groups browsers according to capability– Free web service for all MIT applications– How Touchstone chooses its mobile interface

Modules on m.mit.edu

Module Service Owner Technology % of 2010 (780K hits)

ShuttleTrack Facilities NextBus XML 29%

Campus Map Facilities ArcGIS 22%

Stellar IS&T XML 9%

Events Calendar IS&T SOAP 5%

People Directory IS&T LDAP 4%

News Office News Office XML 3%

Libraries Libraries Drupal 1%

Emergency Info Facilities RSS < 1%

3DOWN IS&T RSS < 1%

TechCASH Card Services Custom < 1%

MIT150 Institute Affairs Drupal New in 2011

Campus Tour Institute Affairs Custom New in 2011

Sorted by 2010 popularity — does not include native app traffic.

Choosing new projects

1. What is most useful to students?2. What has the broadest impact for MIT?3. Does it make sense in a mobile context?4. Is its data readily available to us?5. If it requires authentication, it should use

Touchstone (no certificate support on most phones).

Why Native?

• Features not available in web browsers– Push notifications, background processing, offline use,

better performance, rich SDK• Greater student involvement– Students are more interested to work on a native project

than a website.– Can give students an official place to publish interesting

native projects.• Marketing tool for the Institute– MIT’s name on the App Store. Helps MIT stand out because

not many schools have native apps.

Easing development burden

• All code shared under MIT License• iMobileU– Group of 22+ schools around the world, most base

their mobile site on MIT Mobile• Potential for student projects leveraging

m.mit.edu• Accepting code contributions

Questions

• Do we consider tablets to be mobile devices?– iPads are used more like laptops than phones,

should they default to the mobile web or the desktop web?

m.mit.edu Web Demographics

30%

12%

6%10%

6%

9%

13%

14%

iPhoneiPod TouchiPadAndroidBlackBerryNon-BB SmartphonesFeaturephonesDesktop Browsers

Page views during December 2010Does not include native app traffic

Mobile Web Traffic

2008 2009 2010

269400

653000

781000

Page views by year

Does not include native app traffic

Native App Statistics

App Platform Initial Release Active Users Store Rating

iPhone Feb 2010 25,000 4/5 Stars

Android Nov 2010 2,400 4/5 Stars

Native app traffic is not a meaningful statistic due to predictive caching and periodic checks (e.g. ShuttleTrack polls every 15 seconds).