A comparison of mobile GIS development options on smart phone platforms

The availability of smart phones and the wide spread use of GIS consumer products on smart phones has given rise to a substantial expectation of GIS applications on mobile platforms. This talk examines three of the mobile operating systems (OS) and the GIS development options for those OSs. This talk details our experience with using Google's Android, Microsoft's Phone 7, and Apple's iOS for pervasive and mobile GIS application development. The comparisons of the development environment for the three main smart phone platforms is done by developing similar GIS visualization, data collection, and real-time reporting applications. The talk discusses the development choices for each platform, our choice of the development options for the applications, and the lessons learned from the application development. The talk outlines the pros and cons that were discovered for three mobile platforms for the applications that we developed and discusses the conclusions of the comparison.