Case Studies : 3G Smartphone

The Project:

Our client wished to extend their product line to include a handset taking advantage of all that 3G has to offer, making it the most advanced mass production handset in the world. Features include:

• Built-in full motion color video camera
  • High-resolution, full-duplex, packet-switched, dynamically compressed video and audio sent and received at very high data rates.
• Excellent graphics, 21,000+ pixels with both hardware and software alpha blending
• Advanced user interface uses multiple transparency planes, animated icons and backgrounds
• Exceptional application suite
  • Dynamically downloadable applications and content
  • Picture-mail
  • Mobile web access
  • Movie playback

This project posed several major challenges.

• Software was at least twice as complex as previous product
• Large, globally distributed development team
• Extremely constrained memory (1/3 the RAM, 1/2 the ROM of competing devices)
• Integration of low-level RTOS and dynamic application OS

Blue Mug's Responsibility:

• Software development plan
• Core OS development
  • File system
  • Database
  • Multimedia extensions
  • User interface reference
• Feature infrastructure
  • Software alpha blending
  • Versit (vCard and vCalendar)
  • 3G reference apps
• Development tools
  • UI builder
  • Win32 emulator
  • Distributed source code management system

Results

• Achieved full functionality within memory limits
• Drastically improved legacy code reliability
• Successful product launch in early 2002; the product sold out almost immediately