Mobile and Desktop Applications Require Common User Experience

Gartner Group estimates there will be over 294 million tablets and over 1 billion smartphones sold in 2015[1].  Wow, that is a lot of mobile devices!  Some of these will be for “consumer only” use – consisting mainly as a platform for games, music, and internet access.  However, many of these mobile devices will be purchased to increase business productivity.  According to In-Stat, productivity applications will generate 59% of all smartphone application revenue[2].  From small businesses to large enterprises, companies are considering how to incorporate mobile technology to enhance workforce efficiency.

For most mobile users, their mobile device will not be the only computing platform they will use.  Most mobile workers will still use their desktop systems due to their increased screen size, powerful computing resources (CPU, memory, and disk), full keyboard, and mouse.  When they are on the go, they will be moving from a desktop system to a smaller tablet and/or smartphone.

When mobile users make the transition from desktop to mobile, they don’t want to change applications or use “watered down” versions of applications available on their desktop systems.  They want to continue to use the same features and functions with a common user experience making the transition seamless.  However, with a smaller screen, less computing power, and the lack of a physical keyboard and mouse, getting a compatible user experience is not easy.  While mobile centric modifications will certainly help users speed down the learning curve, mobile users still require solutions that provide similar user experiences as their desktop applications to maximize the potential productivity gains from utilizing mobile technology.

Foxit PDF Reader is a great example of a productivity application that spans desktop to mobile devices providing a common user experience.  As a result of its lightweight architecture, Foxit PDF Reader and Mobile PDF (Foxit PDF Reader’s mobile counterpart) open PDF files with great performance on both desktop systems and mobile devices.  Reflow support enables Mobile PDF users to effortlessly read documents designed for a full-sized sheet of paper on devices with small screens with automatic content re-arrangement.  It supports mobile centric user operations like finger gestures to perform functions like zoom and page turn, and provides users the ability to add signatures or notes to their PDF documents by using their fingertips.  In addition, since Foxit PDF technology is device independent, Mobile PDF still contains the powerful collaboration capabilities of its desktop counterpart like the ability to annotate files by using comments and highlighting features, and bookmark features enable you to start reading the document from the place you last left off.