Certification (m-cube: Level 1)

Certification clearance is one of the basic requirements for all mobile applications…All mobile applications should adhere to the various certification guidelines and the same should be implemented from the design phase itself.

We have an assortment of testing authorities; NSTL for Brew, Symbian Signed for Symbian, Apple store for iPhone etc. These mobile platforms have their own guidelines and an application is required to follow the same. For Example- All BREW applications should have the functionality of the CLR key as a BACK key. Whereas, in case of your Symbian application, it is essential to incorporate an enable/disable feature if the application has auto-start functionality.

The iPhone OS defines the standard appearance of user interface elements and delivers consistent behavior that the users expect. iPhone makes it mandatory for the developers to follow their rules and ensures that the users get a uniform and satisfactory experience at all times.

Applications are increasingly being submitted to various app stores; we have OVI store for JAVA & Symbian technologies, BlackBerry App Store for BlackBerry, App store for iPhone, Windows Market Place for Windows Mobile, Android market for android... In such a scenario, the applications should also adhere to these store guidelines.

Cost is another very important motivation to follow best practices for certification. As we know, the certification authorities charge a specific amount based on the number of builds submitted for testing. The application developer should consider this factor before the application design and create single build for multiple devices. This would help in reducing the cost of the submission, and facilitate maintenance of the codes.