iPhone and Android apps 101

For a peek at the future of mobile computing, head to the tree-lined campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and drop in on Hal Abelson's "Building Mobile Applications" course. Every Friday, Abelson, a longtime professor of electrical engineering and computer science, gathers about 40 students to cook up innovative cellphone applications.

The students' ideas range from mobile coupons to medical management software for African clinics to an uber-scheduler that would link different calendar programs. Organized into teams, the students are charged with building a working mobile application by December a time frame that Abelson admits is "outrageously short."

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Though Abelson's course may seem quintessentially MIT, colleges and universities across the U.S. are increasingly adopting the model. Stanford launched an iPhone development course in September. Columbia is planning a joint iPhone and Google Android class for the spring. Professors say mobile applications offer students the opportunity to hone their skills by quickly building programs with wide appeal.

Propelling the trend are more sophisticated phones, speedier wireless networks, the fast-growing mobile applications market and encouragement from tech giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Nokia.

Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at Google, says he has spoken to dozens of universities, including Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell, about teaching the company's new mobile platform, Android. Several textbooks about Android development are also in the works.

"My expectation is that every school will have a course like this," Abelson says. "Mobile will be the cool development platform that people will work on."

His own class has enough of a cool factor that enrollment doubled between last spring, when MIT first offered the class, and this fall. It didn't hurt that the last crop of students produced an application that won $275,000 US in a Google-sponsored contest.

This semester, students can work with one of three mobile operating systems: Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Mobile or Nokia's Symbian. Though Android was initially the most popular choice, the teams are now equally distributed, says Andrew Yu, MIT's head of mobile services, who helps Abelson oversee the course.

Abelson and Yu view themselves as training the next generation of mobile entrepreneurs. The course is structured around weekly critiques to teach students project management and presentation skills. Adult mentors who work in the mobile industry provide guidance in and out of class.

"There's a lot of asking, 'Why will people use this?'" Abelson says. "We tell the mentors to treat them like real start-ups."

New crop of developers

More student developers will be minted next spring, when Columbia's "Mobile Computing With iPhone And Android" course kicks off. Jason Nieh, an associate professor of computer science who will be leading the course, says he is already deluged with interested students.

"Their reaction is, 'The iPhone is so cool; wouldn't it be great to figure out how it works?'" Nieh says. "They're eager to build something that will matter, that they can put in the hands of real users."

The course will revolve around team-built applications with a panel of judges selecting the most notable ones at the end of the semester.

Professors expect students will submit their creations to mobile applications contests or try to sell them in places like Google's Android Market. It's an idea that delights Miner.

"Computer science departments helped the Web take off," he notes. "We expect universities to become one of the largest contributors to Android's code."

In return, Google is offering professors guidance and, in at least one case, loaning phones to student developers. Microsoft and Nokia have made similar contributions to the MIT course, as has Bank of America, which is using the class to research mobile payment technology.

Apple recently joined the fray with a free program called iPhone Developer University that gives students access to development tools and testing resources. It also eased the restrictions it places on its developers, a crucial move that allows them to discuss in-progress applications.

Easing restrictions has freed schools to start teaching iPhone development. Stanford's graduate-level Center For Professional Development was one of the first to do so in late September. A team of Apple employees and Stanford alumni lead the course, which has attracted more than 80 students.

Several other schools, including Oklahoma Christian University, University of Maryland at College Park and Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee have also expressed interest in hosting iPhone classes, according to an Apple spokeswoman.

As more mobile development courses pop up, they will naturally become more specialized, Abelson says. He advises future classes to embrace themes, such as creating applications for the developing world, to keep things challenging.

"Making something for a phone will be old news. There has to be some other spin," he says.

Abelson, however, doesn't intend to tweak his "stern" teaching style.

"We're not giving students much instruction, just coaching," he says. "It shows that there's something about the mobile application space that makes it possible for people to do really good things."