The Challenge of Mobile Testing Applications

Smartphone applications have experienced explosive growth since 2007. The combined number of
applications in the Apple App Store and Google Play already exceeds a billion. Additionally, every major
enterprise is rapidly adding applications for internal use.
With so many applications competing for users’ attention, meeting a high quality bar is essential for the
success of an app. Poor-quality applications not only hamper user adoption but also can cause revenue
loss and irreparable brand damage. Defective enterprise applications can lead to lost productivity.
Why Mobile App Testing is Different
Testing mobile applications is more complex and time consuming compared to traditional desktop and
web applications.
The majority of desktop applications need to be tested on a single dominant platform – Windows. The
lack of a similar dominant platform for mobile apps results in many apps being developed for and tested
on Android, iOS and sometimes even more platforms.

  Device Variation
  mobile applications testing is difficult due to compatibility issues as mobile application can be deployed      across devices which have different:

•   Operating systems like iOS,Android,Windows,BB,etc.
•   Versions of an operating system such as iOS 4x,iOS 5x, BB 4.x 5.x etc.
•   Manufactures like Samsung HTC,nokia,Micromax etc.
•   Keypad type such as virtual keypad hard keypad etc.

Unlike the desktop world, where PCs are established as standardized reference hardware, the wide variety
of device form factors (e.g. phones and tablets of various screen size) adds another layer of complexity in
testing mobile apps. Device diversity is an especially acute problem for Android devices 

Android device gallery includes over 60 devices of various screen sizes, resolutions and form factors.
The ease of upgrading apps over the air combined with increased user expectations about quicker
releases (both for bug fixes and new features) result in frequent application releases. Adding multiple
major and minor OS updates on top of this, test teams are continuously tasked with testing new app
features or recertifying the app against a new OS version. 

Mobile apps operate in a unique environment where application behavior can be affected by changes in
network conditions (bandwidth change, dropped connections), alerts and notifications, as well as touch
screen responsiveness. This unique environment requires additional testing to ensure acceptable app
behavior in real world conditions.

The specific types of testing required for each application depends on various factors such as:

• The type of application (banking, gaming, social, or business)
• Target audience type (consumer, enterprise) and volume
• Distribution channel (e.g. Apple App Store, Google Play, direct distribution)