Assessing the suitability of current smartphone platforms for mobile government

Abstract

Smartphones offer a great opportunity to improve governmental procedures and services in terms of efficiency and user acceptance. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity of current smartphone platforms such as Apple iOS, Google Android, or Microsoft Windows Phone 8 renders the integration of smartphones into such governmental procedures and services difficult. The choice of the most appropriate smartphone platform is crucial for the security and success of smartphone based procedures and services. Making the correct choice is a difficult task as smartphone platforms are continuously evolving. Furthermore, requirements that need to be fulfilled by the chosen platform heavily depend on the particular use case. To overcome this problem, this paper identifies use cases, in which smartphones can be used to improve governmental procedures and services. From these use cases, relevant platform properties are derived. These properties are then analyzed on current versions of the three smartphone platforms Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 8. Based on the results of this analysis, the platforms' suitability for the identified use cases is assessed. This way, the paper provides responsible decision makers from governments and public administrations with a profound basis for choosing the correct smartphone platform for a given use case. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.