How do you decide what the type of app you need- iOS or Android? How do you choose the app platform- Native or Hybrid?
Once you are ready to invest in your app idea and have chosen the right mobile app developer for your business, your next step is to define an architecture for your mobile app. Although, the experts you have hired for mobile app development do assist you with best of their knowledge and experience (that suits your business requirements and budget), a homework done is always beneficial to make well-informed decisions.
This article is dedicated to providing complete foundation knowledge to all business owners who are moving ahead with a business application. The checklist will help you make acute decisions and healthy discussions with the app developers and Project Managers before getting started.
Choice of Device and Operating System- Android, iPhone (iOS), Windows or others
The majority of the world’s smartphone users are either using Android or iPhones. There are very few left with Windows and Blackberry handhelds. Windows and Blackberry acquires only 2.3% and 0.95% of world’s total market share, respectively.
Narrowing down, the choice of the device now depends on geographic locations. While iPhone enjoys the largest market share in China, Android dominates the smartphone usage in the US, Asia, Europe, Germany. But an honest opinion says that the market share between iOS and Android keeps oscillating from one to the other, so it’s wise to have an app developed for both OS, that would work on all devices and for all versions.
We, at Konstant Infosolutions, have experienced that many of our clients who first approached us for iOS mobile app development eventually came back for Android app development for the same app.
Key Technology Choices for Mobile Platforms
Once the OS is decided, you next move to choosing the right platform for development. There are three possible technology options for developing a mobile app.
Native
Develops the app to run on a specific device- native code for individual devices and operating systems. The app belongs to the respective App Store (Google Play, Apple Store) and can only be downloaded from there.
Cross-Platform or Hybrid
Write the code once and deploy it on multiple devices, on different OS. As the name suggests, one code can work cross-platform after just a final refinement for each.
The only difference between cross-platform and hybrid app development lies in the potentiality and flexibility of the development technologies used. While the former uses non-web technologies like .NET framework including Xamarin, the latter works with web technologies like HTML5 and JavaScript. Cross-platform is considered more powerful than hybrid. However, the two terms are used interchangeably.
Mobile Web Apps
Mobile-optimized web pages look like an app and run over the internet from a central server.
Read through to know the technologies used and benefits and limitations of using the above three platforms, varying as per your business requirements
Native vs. Cross-platform Apps
No wonder, the apps built natively with different codebase specific to device continue to offer smoothest and most memorable user experience. Native apps are fully optimized for the device they are designed to run including the hardware and software environments. Coded using specific languages- Objective -C and Swift for iOS, Java for Android and C# for Windows, the apps run faster and allow offline usage as well. Once downloaded, the application remains on the device until uninstalled manually.
On the contrary, frameworks like PhoneGap, Sencha, Xamarin and Adobe Air contribute to developing a single code base that can run on multiple mobile platforms and multiple devices. Most of cross-platform apps use HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Saves a lot of time and effort of the developers. Easy-to-learn and simple-to-implement technologies.
Developing native apps need more investments- more money and more time since specific APIs have to be purchased as per the device and the code has to be written all over again for each OS.
In Native, almost 75-80% of the cost (invested for the first platform) is required for the second. It saves you only 20-25% from the UX design and integration done on the first platform.
Conversely. cross-platform apps only require 20-25% of additional effort, time and money to build for multiple platforms, once the base app is developed.
Nevertheless, for most impressive, compelling and emotive user experiences, Native apps are matchless.
Here you go with your choices!
High Budget + Expert Mobile Team ——– Native Apps are the best choices
Small Budget+ Developers knowing web technologies and frameworks ——— Choose Cross-platform Apps
These are ideal situations; however, the owner can customize and can work with a flexible model. At Konstant Infosolutions, the team is resilient to client’s requirements and offers the best advice to choose the best app development architecture.
One of the important benefits of Native applications is that they immediately adapt to new features and functions of the OS upgrades or new generations of mobile devices. This is quick and provides a competitive advantage to your business app. Whereas in cross-platform, you have to wait for the framework to work with new features. There are some user-interaction delays and users can observe discontinuity while traversing through multiple screens; large animations may not behave seamlessly on a cross-platform app.
Mobile web apps- Easy to develop and spread, but performance issues with a compromise in UX
With mobile web apps, there is no reliance on mobile platform, OS and device type. Thus, they can run on any smartphone or tablet, serving the widest audience with least efforts. It also involves the least expense out of the three approaches.
HTML5 is bringing lot many developments in mobile web app development- creating a look and feel like that of a native app. Typically, a mobile web app using HTML5 also needs to be optimized for different platforms, which require 20-25% additional budget.
Some of the current limitations of HTML5 is that it does not offer full support for Internet Explorer. Some of its advanced app features do not work as expected with the browser. To achieve best results for mobile web apps, HTML5 must be supported by Sencha or jQuery.
Based on the above facts, differences, benefits and limitations, as a business owner, you need to analyze and find out what suits you the best. There are various questions that revolve around identifying the right mobile app development architecture:
■ What’s the purpose of your application?
■ What type of experience users/ audience expects?
■ What are your budget and time limitations?
■ How well skilled are your app developers?
■ How soon you want it to adapt to new OS upgrades and devices?
■ What are the industry-specific requirements?
If cost is no bar, look no further than a native app- guarantees best performance, richest features and most engaging user experience.
Mobile web apps can help you reach largest audiences with minimum efforts, lowest investments and in least time. Nevertheless, cross-platform offers richer user experience than web apps, writing the code once for multiple platforms.
Whether your aim is a rich, seamless app or an extremely cost-effective but efficiently working iOS and Android application, our team at Konstant Infosolutions will help you with most dynamic and appropriate solutions for your business. Check out some successful, real-time working examples from our portfolio.
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Heena Banga is a Senior Content Developer at Konstant Infosolutions- a globally recognized mobile application development company. She leads marketing and growth initiatives at the company using a mix of technical and business content tactics. Heena also contributes articles to CrowdReviews, OpenSourceForU, Sociableblog, ducttapemarketing, PAYMILL blog. She hopes to enjoy a business conversation onboard a commercial space flight someday. Her ultimate goal is to combine business and writing and go into Advertising.
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