If you develop native applications, you live on the left-hand side of this image. You’re close to phone internals and you can use hardware APIs to take full advantage of sensors, location based services , GPS, camera and other components inside the phone. Of course, that also means that you have to port, test and maintain versions for all the platforms your customers use — but you can’t have everything.

I recently spoke with Kevin Kwang of ZD Net Asia to discuss the state of mobile multi-core processors. I pointed out that while it’s exciting to see powerful, dual-core Snapdragon processors commercially available (in products like the HTC EVO™ 3D and HP TouchPad), if developers aren’t coding their applications with distinct APIs that take advantage of multiple cores, the power of the hardware is often underutilized.

I think I’m a pretty typical mobile user, which means I have high expectations with no room for compromise. I want to be connected all the time and anywhere I happen to be. I want great performance and I want the battery to last all day.

In mobile communication , 2011 ushered in the buzz word “dual-core” with the introduction of the first tablets and smartphones. At Qualcomm, we began showcasing our MSM8660 dual-core CPU processors at CES, leveraging the Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform or MDP for short. If you aren’t familiar with the Snapdragon MDP, it is an important development tool available from BSQUARE to leverage the powerful capabilities of the Snapdragon processors.