The need to develop and test for the hundreds of handset types that are in common use makes matters difficult for the mobile developer.

Differences between handsets can include:

• Operating system type and version,
• Operator-specific customizations,
• Screen-size and shape,
• Sound capabilities,
• Execution memory size and maximum application size and
• Processor capability.

Some developers take a lowest-common-denominator approach in the face of these variations but this is not likely to produce universally compelling content.

Software Product Lines offer a better way of developing for multiple handsets that avoids the problems of the lowest-common-denominator approach and also promises to reduce time-to-market, reduce test-effort and improve product quality.

In Software Product Lines, individual handset applications are built from a set of reusable, configurable components using a flexible assembly process.

Software Product Lines scale well because most of the functionality of each new handset application is implemented and tested in these reusable software components.

Read about pure::variants, a tool for developing Software Product Lines.

Find out about starting Software Product Lines.