Revisiting the Mobile Software Ecosystems Literature

Software Ecosystems are comprised of a technology platform, business models, internal and external developers, and engaging users. The popularity of smartphones brought along the mobile software ecosystems, such as iOS and Android, which are composed of a platform, a community of users and developers, mobile applications, and online application store, and evangelists that often promote the ecosystem. Given the recent nature of the topic, this paper aims to revisit the state-of-the-art through a systematic literature mapping. We found 63 publications on the topic of mobile software ecosystems that were categorized by year (almost 50% of the publications are from 2015 and on), by author (a few collaboration clusters were identified), and by the mobile ecosystems characteristics (most publications discuss business or technical aspects) and elements (applications and the platform are the most discussed topics followed by the developers and the users). Our results provide an up-to-date map of the topic for those interested in mobile software ecosystems.