Empirical study on mobile platforms selection, based on system, information and service quality characteristics

The use of mobile devices is growing rapidly at an unprecedented rate and mobile manufacturers are competing to provide the best device that satisfies users' needs. With huge numbers of mobile devices across nearly a dozen mobile development platforms, the selection of ideal platform is often met with unanswered questions. This paper uses quality characteristics for selecting mobile operating platform. Through this study, quality characteristics are organised in three levels, i.e. system, information and service quality. These quality characteristics are tailored to the criteria having been built from background study and standards for software quality and guidelines. To show the feasibility of the proposed approach, the paper presents case study results of applying the selected quality characteristics on four mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. The effort is part of an Omani-funded research project investigating on the development, adoption and dissemination of mobile learning in Oman.