The Merits And Demerits Of Cross-platform Mobile App Development

By Author: Mohammed Farhan
Total Articles: 13
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Mobile device is now omnipresent. It is now a “must-have” component of everyone’s lifestyle, irrespective of the standard of living. This has led to every organization to consider mobile as an important element, irrespective of the size it may be. Although one can focus on only a single mobile operating system, and stop considering other types, it is worth the effort to consider the numerous mobile devices with the different operating systems. In addition, previously having a single mobile app was enough for a business to concentrate on. However, now it is important for an app to provide support for Android gadgets, Windows Phone, Tabs, iPads, BlackBerry, Amazon Kindle, etc.

An important point for mobile apps development Dubai, or for that matter, at other parts of the world need to consider is whether to develop a native mobile app or a cross-platform app. It is true that as a business, you have to handle various kinds of customers with different kinds of devices. Hence, the mobile app that you require should be able to work faultlessly on almost all the platforms (like iOS, Windows, Android, etc.)

Cross-platform ...
... apps

Ideally, apps developed to run across different platforms with a single code base work on multiple operating systems. Cross-platform apps are available in 2 types:

• Hybrid ‘HTML5’ Cross-Platform Apps

• Native Cross-Platform Apps

Hybrid ‘HTML5’ cross-platform Apps

Mobile apps work as GUI applications. It is the backend web services on which most of the mobile apps depend for major section of the business logic. When it comes to business process automation sphere in mobile apps, 60% of the code is meant to create and manage the GUI.

An advanced browser component in the SDKs exists with Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. By making use of this Web View component, standard HTML5 web technologies are used for the design and programming of their application. The end product is an application that comprises of a minimum of a native frame and HTML/JavaScript that is performed in a Web View, and it is the reason for them to be called as “hybrid”.

Cordova / PhoneGap

Apache Cordova, previously known as PhoneGap, is the mostly used hybrid cross-platform framework now. The majority of SmartPhones operating systems are supported by Apache Cordova.

Native Cross-Platform Apps

The majority of mobile operating system comes with its own Software Development Kit or SDK, which is used to create mobile apps. There are selections of the programming languages of these SDKs, which the OS vendors use.

However, one can use APIs that are offered by the native SDKs in other languages that are not supported by the vendor. This is the method of creation of “cross-platform” native apps. Usually, a third-party vendor makes use of a programming language to make a unified API over the native SDKs that the different OS vendors provide. This unified API is made use of in supporting multiple-operating systems using a single-code. Usually, the third-party vendor uses a programming language that deals with the method of creating native application for the Android and iOS using a single codebase running on different platforms. As the native APIs are still used by the final app that is created, the cross-platform native apps are able to achieve a performance which is near to native one, but which does not show any conspicuous lag to the user.

Present Implementation State

In spite of the possibility of building cross-platform native applications, the existing implementation state is yet to reach to its completion. In most of the cases, the mobile apps are GUI-heavy during the implementation side. It is the server on which most of the significant logic on business application depends, and which is used by the mobile through web services. Due to difference in the User Interface and User Experience Design of Android and iOS, creating a uniform GUI wrapper is not an easy job.

The Native Cross-Platform Frameworks in Use

• Xamarin

• Appcelerator Titanium

• NativeScript

• QT

• RubyMotion

Merits of cross-platform mobile app development

1. It is possible to reuse around 50% to 80% of code for realization across platforms through careful planning, leading to quicker development and lowering of costs.

2. During the maintenance period, one can get increased benefits through cross-platform development. Hence, if the common codebase finds a bug, it requires fixing only once.

3. The common code requires a single-time writing of unit tests, and that would help in writing a more thorough unit tests using the saved budget.

4. Instead of getting to learn development language that is platform-specific, one can use the existing programming talent.

5. The right choice for B2B apps and also for business process automation apps, it is more important for the time to deploy and better resource utilization than having a great look to it.

Demerits of cross-platform mobile app development

1. When it comes to raw processing power, generally, desktops are more powerful compared to phones. Many of the phones in the mid-level and entry level do not come with enough hardware power to execute HTML5 animations smoothly. Due to these HTML5 hybrid apps, there could be slow UI on low and mid-range phones. In addition, due to evolution of browser components with the operating systems, it is relatively easy to provide support to operating systems that are over three years.

2. When it comes to working on modern HTML and CSS, some advanced features are made use of like gradients that need the use of more of CPU and GUP resources. Hence more battery power is consumed through HTML5 based-apps compared to native cross-platform applications or native apps.

3. Usually, it is callback-style programming that is needed for communicating with native plug-in using HTML5 apps, and which leads to unnecessary complication of the code. Also, there are unnecessary slow-solutions for some tasks.

4. The native cross-platform app SDKs is not that developed yet. To get a platform-specific look and feel, the GUI requires to be coded a number of times.

5. Many of the apps are made as native apps due to the difficulty in app designing and building for different platforms that have platform-specific user experience. This is due to the fact that each of the platforms has their own interface guidelines and it is quite challenging to have a single code base.

6. Mobile operating systems are developing at a faster pace. New features are being added every year, and that leads to cross-platform SDK vendors to work more in bringing out new versions within a short time, once a new version comes out. Sometimes, the developer needs to work more to upgrade an app to the newer version.

To summarize, in spite of having complete platform compatibility and hassle-free performance, HTML5 hybrid application development or native cross-platform techniques for business process automation projects and B2B solutions can provide a more cost-effective solution with better performance when it comes to mobile apps development Dubai.

Author:

eHorizon is a leading company for mobile apps development Dubai offering a range of services and solutions for your website design development for the different available platforms.