Santiago Hernández and his partners have experienced it firsthand: applications do not usually behave in the same way on all devices on the market (not to mention that the pace of releases is unstoppable). For example, there is a long list of screen resolutions, sizes, memory, CPU, among other specifications. The application that works well on one model may generate problems on another. And that can mean that the user goes to the competition.
Ideally, each app should be tested in different configurations. The reality is that companies or independent developers don't have that possibility. "In other words, if your app doesn't run well on the latest iPhone, you're losing users," he told Cromo.
Hourly tests
So Hernández and his team came up with Mobilebox, a Uruguayan platform that allows anyone to control a cell phone or tablet from a web browser, with a mouse and keyboard, and is the only one of its kind in Latin America.
The most common services are hosted in Europe and the United States, and the geographical distance adds an additional frustration for the developer testing his app on a slow system. "If five seconds go by between opening the app and pressing a button, you go crazy," he said. In addition, projects are delayed longer than they should be.
Mobilebox started with three mobile phones. Today it offers 50 different devices, including models from Apple, Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Pixel, Huawei, LG, HTC and Xiaomi. "They are real, not emulators," said the entrepreneur, who added that they are the most used in the Uruguayan market. At first Mobilebox only offered the Android operating system, but for the last three months it has also been available for testing iOS apps. As an example, a company or developer can access these devices from the cloud and use them by the hour, without having to buy them -which implies a significant saving-; they only have to hire the service, whose initial price is US$ 8.40 per hour. "For what you get for the latest iPhone, you can hire 100 hours of the most used cell phones in Uruguay," said Hernandez.
The plans
What is the result? The most direct result is an improvement in the quality of the tool, because the platform allows testing and detecting errors in cell phones "that perhaps were not even taken into account at a very low cost," said Hernandez.
In the future, those responsible for Mobilebox want to expand the platform abroad for which they must add more cell phones. This is because, without going any further, different models are used in Brazil. They also plan to tighten the security of the system so that it can be contracted by banks.
Currently, Mobilebox is supported by the National Agency for Research and Innovation (Anii) and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) of ORT University.
Source: Chrome
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