nthWire Beta launch to take headache out of mobile app and web testing
Glasgow-based digital agency Meta Digital is to launch the Beta version of a new online mobile application testing system that enables developers to test mobile app and mobile websites on all mobile devices, platforms and operating systems for one low monthly cost, at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The system being developed by Meta Digital is called nthWire and is a web-based platform that allows designers and developers creating mobile web sites and mobile web applications to test their work for a wide range of different mobile devices without the cost and complexity of owning and managing the devices themselves. The idea was born when Meta began to devise a software system for use with the mobile apps and sites they were developing for their own clients after failing to find an adequate system already available on the market.
Meta Digital are now looking to sign up Beta testers and are also seeking investment to help them further develop the nthWire system.
Simon Mone, managing director of Meta Digital, said: “In 2013 it is estimated that 25% of all internet traffic will be on mobile devices. This is a big opportunity for the ten million web developers in the world, but we have all had the experience of viewing a website on a phone where the pages take an age to load and when it does load you can’t actually read the text or make out what the images are without pinching and flicking and swiping about the small screen. The big opportunity for web developers is also a huge problem – testing for all devices is costly, complicated and no good tools exist. nthWire helps developers to test their work to ensure it gives us, the users, the best mobile web experience possible regardless of which device we choose to use.
"We looked around for tools that could help us to test for as many devices as possible and found nothing suitable. There are emulators and simulators, large expensive software solutions, rented time on phones attached to remote servers and crowdsourcing solutions available but they are complex or costly or both. They are also time-consuming to use. Web developers like to tweak their code then test then tweak then test and so on. Using the available solutions means developers are testing after lots of coding which leads to a big list of bugs that need to be unpicked. This didn’t work for us. So, we designed a better solution. One that works the way developers work. One that saves time and money and allows us to test across multiple devices and mobile browsers.
“We are excited to be launching our beta version at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25 February and we will be part of the SDI delegation on stand C100. We are looking for developers who are building mobile optimised web sites and mobile web applications to sign up and start using the platform in order to help us to build a test tool that really works for them. Potential Beta testers can find out more and sign up at www.nthwire.com .”
Mone and his business partner John Macfarlane have already demonstrated the nthWire platform to a number of major players in the mobile web sector and had a very promising response, with interest from device manufacturers including HTC and RIM, from developer community managers at Facebook, HTC and O2 and also from tools providers including Microsoft.