App toolkit development company Golgi has plans to remove the ubiquitous “spinning wheel” loading icon from your phone, recently announcing a new service that the company claims can result in up to a 20-fold decrease in load times. According to Forbes, the company has raised $5 million from lead investor Openmind and others to develop its mobile app loading solution.
Junk
Golgi’s goal is to change the way apps are downloaded. Instead of pulling all necessary data when users open applications, Golgi’s system actively pushes data to apps in the background. This requires custom transfer code with a Golgi-specific platform, but, according to VentureBeat, the global locations of Golgi’s data centers should reduce the distance this data has to travel.
Golgi CTO Brain Kelly said that even devices connected to a weak signal will send information quickly because it does so in small pieces. “Because of this,” he said, “it doesn’t matter how bad the connection is because the data isn’t dumped all at once like most apps do with a basic refresh.”
This isn’t a new concept; online video games stream content this way, allowing users to keep playing as new data is downloaded in the background. But the impact may be felt more on mobile, where speed is king and concerns about decreased bandwidth and Net neutrality make piecemeal downloads an attractive alternative to large data dumps.
The Cost of Performance
Golgi’s idea certainly has merit, but there are several questions left unanswered. First up is the interplay between the company’s data transfer platform and mobile device operating systems, especially those with closed-source or proprietary systems. If specific device or app developers aren’t willing to cooperate, it could severely hamper the function of Golgi’s idea.
The other question concerns overall device performance. Downloading data in the background avoids the lag associated with a single, massive download, but what happens when data is streamed to multiple apps concurrently? Will users be able to pick which apps use the service, or will it make these decisions based on how often apps are used? Too much data coming down the pipe, even in small chunks, could affect performance.
There’s certainly room for improvement when it comes to mobile app loading, and Golgi may have the answer with its streaming technology. What do you think—is killing the wheel mobile’s next big step?
Image courtesy of Flickr
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