IPhone/Android App Development

The Product:

Our new product is a personal GPS tracker that allows it to send data to a phone over GSM (SMS) based on a 'fix on demand' approach.

Rather than continuously sending data to some software or to a phone directly, the data (location coordinates etc.) is received by a user's phone once they request the GPS tracker to send it, i.e. on demand.

Currently a user can request data by sending a text with specific commands that allows the user to get gps location details via return text message from the tracker and a clickable URL which opens the location coordinates in Google Maps, as well as allowing other commands to be sent/received such as the adding of phone numbers authorised to receive texts from the tracker, lock/unlock the SIM, retrieve battery data, etc.

App Requirement:

What we would like is a very simple app that allows the user to request the info they need from the phone by way of buttons (e.g. get location, battery status, etc) rather than having to format a text each time. i.e. the app is a GUI which simply replaces the manual text entry and then allows the user to click 'text send' to action the request.

In effect by pressing, for example, the 'get location' button the app is pre-programmed to
launch/open a pre-formatted text message which the user then just has to click 'send' in order for the GPS tracker to return the data requested either within app interface or simply as the standard incoming text message. If location is requested, as I said, a formatted Google Maps URL is already returned by the tracker so we don't need to develop any mapping capabilities within this current app, as the user should be able to just click on the link sent and open in their phone's web browser. There is a fuller 'workflow pdf' with further working details accompanying this document.

We would ideally like the app developed initially for both iPhones and Android phones, with a view to extending this to Blackberrys and Windows phones at a later date.

The app will be offered to our customers free of charge.

However, we plan to incorporate a number of additional features into the app once we have established its initial success and to this end there will be a need to develop a paid version in the near future to accommodate extra bells and whistles such as rela time data reception and logging to the phone, historical location plotting etc.

The exact number of commands to incorporate into the app currently numbers about 8 or 9 but this may be extended to around 11 or 12 in this free version.

We will provide detailed guidance on the commands and hence the primary focus in terms of app development is that of getting the commands to work over the app and UI.