Android platform, can I meet those requirements?
<p>Folks, I'm trying to see if my plan realistic at all. I'm ne to
Android platform but not new to software development. This is my first
post here as well :)</p>

<p>We want (in our company) to create Android software to compliment our
truck management software. Basically, it will do couple very specific
tasks.</p>

<p>a. Send GPS updates to server.
b. Receive trip information.
c. Send pickup/delivery confirmation to server.</p>

<p>After evaluationg i. platform and Windows phone 7 platform we came to
conclusion that only Android has multitasking that works for us. So,
Android it is but I have some specific questions.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Data plan we want to use will be very limited. Probably 5M/mo and
no voice/text. I figured 5x1024x1024 = 5242280 bytes will give me 1k
per transmission every 15 minutes (3000 transmissions per mo). It will
leave 2M for other stuff that will happens every couple of days. Does
my math look OK or there is lot of "waste" traffic? Our server going
to be XML SOAP and messages sent will be just Lon/Lat in XML package.
1K will be OK? If I just calculate bytes it will be even less but I
wonder if there is "minimum" packet size, etc. Any insight on this
data limitation appreciated.</p></li>
<li><p>Because of #1 we need to "lock" device somehow so there is no other
software that uses network. Possible? If so, what do I need to look
for? I found already created app - firewall and it says phone has to
be rooted for that.</p></li>
<li><p>Receiving trip information. What's the best way to accomplish that
given my situation? Should I run some kind of listener? Will my phone
have IP address or something? Or should I get small text plan and use
that for this specific functionality? Can I receive text message in my
own application?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So, as you see we trying to shrink $80/mo service to $15/mo service
that will do big savings to our company but not sure if it's all
possible with constraints we have. Also, we may just give discounts to
drivers who have Android phone and will install our app but we don't
count on that.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for any help on this subject.</p>

<p><strong>UPDATE</strong>:
Now that I think about it - limited data plan present challenges initially but actually helps us do it "right" to make sure we don't overload server with constant polls. What I really like to see is some real-worls experience with data usage. Problem is, to us to even come up with test app - will require considerable effort. Would be much better to rule this out right now if it won't work. For example, if I knew that message size 2k no matter how big of a message itslef - then I would know immediately that it won't work for us..</p>
