Why Mobile Application Testing Spins Up So Rapidly?

Have you ever thought that mobile industry will become so popular? Never!
According to the recent research more than $10 billion were spent on downloading mobile applications in 2011, $21 billion in 2012 and according to forecast users will spend more than $30 billion in 2013. Rather impressive, isn’t it?

And all this is just for downloading paid mobile applications! And their number on the market is approximately 20 percent. The rest of mobile applications are free.

It is not surprising that mobile application testing spins up because of such boom in the industry. It is one of the most popular kinds of software testing performed by software testing company. What kinds of mobile applications do you know? Let’s try to find them out.

Types of mobile applications:

• Web applications;
• Platform applications;
• SMS;
• Mobile websites.

Let’s see what is the difference between? Should different kinds of mobile application testing be performed for them?

Web applications
Web applications are considered to be the most acceptable as mobile web browser is an application that sends content to the mobile device. It means that such application is independent of any device, platform or operating system.

Platform applications
The development of such applications is rather simple but their supporting and testing are very costly.

SMS
It is the most simply type of application. User usually send a query in form of short code to receive immediately the desired information just like train schedule, ticket’s price, etc. They are testbased and have limitations of the message content.

Mobile websites
Mobile websites are considered to be the source of simple and accurate information just like weather, news, sports, etc. Their great disadvantage is that the limited resolution screens information is hardly readable.
Different kinds of mobile application testing should be performed for them as they are very different. But there is nothing impossible for software testing company.

What Are the Typical Problems You Can Face During Mobile Testing?

• The software installed on a mobile device depends greatly on its creators and the decisions they take during the process of software development. Sometimes they create such type of software that may influence the overall behavior of your phone.
• The specific feature of mobile testing is that accurate test results may be really hard to obtain. The obtained data is usually quite conflicting. A software tester should have enough practical experience to be able to single out key challenges and the most important issues.
• Sometimes you may face the problem caused by a certain network operator. Sometimes they customize the software’s interface and functionality for their specific needs and it may cause its overall performance.
• Some models of mobile phones can also be very problematic in handling. Sometimes they may limit or even disable certain parts of tested software.
• Some application’s content may prove to be unsuitable for certain mobile devices. For example, it may contain unsuitable format.

If you consider all these issues when planning your mobile testing, you are sure to succeed.

Tips for Conducting Successful Mobile Testing:

• Sometimes the best option is unite mobile testing with another software testing type, namely automated testing. Automation will make your testing more productive and greatly economize your time.
• Take into consideration that depending on a software type, not all of the software products can be easily automated. Some applications require only manual testing if you want it successful.
• Check the software installation process (installation testing)
• Consider the used language (maybe you will need to implement the elements of localization testing).
• The preinstalled web browser is also something you should consider when planning your software testing.
• Verify that the device type doesn’t put any limitations on the software under testing.
• Check whether the software doesn’t influence the overall device performance.
• Make sure that the stated software is technically most suitable for the users’ devices.
• When choosing the most suitable devices to conduct mobile testing on, choose the most popular models with most popular environment (OS version, preinstalled software etc.).
• Test the software’s performance.
• Sometimes exploratory testing can be a good way of guiding the overall testing process.
• Combine several types of software testing in order to get the maximum profitable testing result.

Why do many software companies just ignore testing?

According to one of the latest researches, around 57 percent of application performance issues are usually found by users and 67 percent of applications are usually used without outsourcing software testing to ensure that they can scale to support desired traffic levels. I think it just proves one more time the necessity of mobile application testing and web site testing. Why not to supply the market with software equipment of high quality?

As my personal point of view mobile testing is necessary just as any other type of software testing. And it is really important because we all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes are unimportant, but some of them are expensive or dangerous. We need to check everything and anything we produce because things can always go wrong –humans make mistakes all the time.

In the conclusion I would like to ask you what are your considerations on the question if there is need and importance for mobile testing. Should we think twice before launch developed mobile product to the production without any testing performed?