Accenture and NTT DoCoMo to Offer Remote Testing for Smartphone Content Providers
Accenture and NTT DoCoMo in late March 2012 will begin offering to DOCOMO-affiliated content providers a remote, self-verification operational testing service for content (e.g. applications) developed for smartphones. The service will then be expanded to the broader smartphone market in Japan. As part of the agreement, Accenture will establish and operate a remote test center at the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture. Through the center, NTT DoCoMo will provide information on the devices, including the latest models, and a working network environment for the operational testing of software on the devices. Currently, content providers must purchase the devices themselves in order to test their content under development for debugging purposes.
But with the rapid introduction of a wide variety of smartphones and tablets (with different screen sizes, operating system versions, etc.), the cost of development, including the cost of purchasing the actual devices, has become a heavy burden for the developers. The services provided by Accenture and DOCOMO are expected to deliver significant cost savings and contribute to the development of higher-quality content for smartphones by providing a more rapid and efficient development environment. DoCoMo’s dmenu, a portal site for smartphone entertainment and services, will contain many examples of content developed in this new environment.
