Mobile Systems Development: An Empirical Study

As part of an ongoing study on mobile systems development (MSD), this paper presents preliminary findings of research-in-progress. The debate on mobility in research has so far been dominated by mobile HCI, technological innovations, and socio-technical issues related to new and emerging mobile work patterns. This paper is about the development of mobile systems.Based on an on-going empirical study I present four case studies of companies each with different products or services to offer and diverging ways of establishing and sustaining a successful business in the mobile industry. From the case studies I propose a five-layered framework for understanding the structure and segmentation of the industry. This leads to an analysis of the different modes of operation within the mobile industry, exemplified by the four case studies.The contribution of this paper is therefore two-fold: (1) I present preliminary findings from an on-going multiple case study that indicates and support a five-layered segmentation of the mobile industry, and (2) I propose four modes of operation reflecting the diversified nature of MSD.