By Rhonda Wickham
Thursday, September 11, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO—It’s a familiar pain point. Developers and operators need to be certain that their content renders correctly over mobile devices. But the sheer number of devices all with different capabilities, screen sizes and browsers makes it tremendously challenging.
Because of that built-in complexity, many developers have taken a fingers-crossed approach to launching their content, hoping for the best. However, Keynote Systems, provider of mobile and Internet T&M solutions, thinks it has a better approach.
At the CTIA’s Wireless I.T. and Entertainment event, Keynote unveiled a testing tool that goes by the name of MITE, which stands for Mobile Interactive Testing Environment. MITE lets developers test and validate mobile content over the Internet or live carrier networks and across more than 1,600 device profiles so they can see how their content renders on each device.
In a demonstration of the tool, Nisheeth Mohan, Keynote mobile product manager, showed how users can test content across the device profiles. For example, he showed how users can check download times for a page, track redirects by the browser as well as setting rules and writing script.
MITE also can record and play back scripts with advanced scripting features such as conditioning coding. In addition, operators and brands can use the tool to audit their shortcodes to make certain they adhere to industry guidelines.
“Testing today is limited because developers don’t have adequate tools,” Mohan said. MITE fills that gap as well as future-proofs its capabilities with continuous updates as new devices are introduced to the market. Testing can be done online or over the air.
Users can take MITE for a 15-day trial run. Single-user licenses are available for $1,500 a year.