Mobile inventory application -- need advice

Question

I have been tasked with designing an application for tracking inventory on a mobile device. The application will be barcode scanner enabled and either make real time service calls (preferred) or periodic file transfers to update our backend system written in ASP.NET. We are a .NET shop so we will likely leverage the Microsoft platform. Of significant importance is that our prototype is scheduled for delivery in Sept 2010.

The advice I am seeking is in regards to which mobile platform we should target. Given the timeframe of the prototype, I believe that Mobile 7 will not be released.

That leaves Mobile 6.5 (and earlier) and CE 5.0.

Having not developed a mobile app in a long time, I am not familiar with the platforms so it is hard for me to compare between them. Given the (very) high level requirements, does one platform seem more logical than the other?

Thanks,

Steve

Answer 1

If you want this to run a single app (i.e. no users playing around with other parts of the OS) I'd go with a Motorola scanner running Windows CE. CE is a lot easier to lock down to kiosk mode than WinMo, and with your schedule, you don't want to be burning cycles trying to get kiosk mode working.