I am newly a mobile development contributor to Fierce Wireless. An excerpt from my first article, Targeting Smartphone Apps for Mass-Market Users, published today, is below. Check out the full article at FierceDeveloper…

Who is the typical smartphone user? I envision a stressed-out businessperson or dangling-headphone hipster. My stereotypical smartphone user is an affluent, tech-savvy individual who harnesses the power of her device for near-constant interactions with mobile data services. She uses her smartphone to send email, browse the Web, stream videos and music, connect with friends on social networks, comparison-shop, and find nearby restaurants and businesses. Oh yes, and she occasionally uses her mobile phone for voice calls.

My stereotype crumbles as more and more mobile users upgrade from feature phones to smartphones. This year, mass-market consumers are stampeding into the smartphone ecosystem. 2010 is the year when “anyone with a touchscreen” is using their shiny, new smartphone to consume mobile data services. Clever mobile developers recognize the exploding smartphone user base as an unparalleled opportunity to simplify the usability of Mobile Web and native applications and provide personalized experiences to suit all kinds of smartphone users.

Come by and check out my talk at JavaOne 2009 in San Francisco on Wednesday June 3rd. I’m presenting Java ME code samples and cool featurephone demos of mobile application features typically seen only on smartphones.

Smart Phone Behavior on a Feature Phone Budget, Using Java™ Platform, Micro Edition

• Session ID: BOF-6265
• Presenter: Gail Rahn Frederick
• Date: Wednesday, June 03 7:45 PM – 8:35 PM

Mobile application features typical in smart phones can also be implemented on mass-market feature phones by use of Java™ Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME platform) and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE platform) technology-based back-end services. This BoF explores the multimodality and rich user interface of a search-driven ODP application written in the Java ME programming language and broadly ported to mass-market feature phones. Multimodality enables users to search, browse, and discover by using familiar activities on a mobile device: saying a phrase, entering text, or snapping a photo.

The presentation includes demos of Java ME technology-based feature phone devices for voice recording, image capture, location awareness, and advanced mapping functionality in a modern mobile search application. It also presents and analyzes snippets of Java ME code used to implement voice recording, image capture, location awareness, and advanced mapping.

Here are my presentation slides for JavaOne 2009: