Why Cross-Platform Mobile App Development helps?

This article is a brief introduction to the rationale behind and rise of cross-platform mobile app development and introduces the reader to some of the most popular cross-platform mobile development approaches in use today.

Mobile Mobile Everywhere

We are moving towards a future dominated by ubiquitous mobile usage. Mobile devices touch almost all aspects of modern life. Customers are getting increasingly mobile-savvy and businesses around the world are gearing up by creating new and innovative mobile apps for every conceivable reason.

Keeping pace with the velocity of demand, a number of mobile platforms have been introduced over the years. However, only a few of them – iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry – have been able to hold their own and grow up to command respectable market share. The mobile landscape is in a constant state of flux, witnessing tectonic shifts with dynamic balance of power amongst the top mobile platforms. If you want to develop a mobile app today, you have an array of development options: native and cross-platform mobile development (including web and hybrid ways).

Native Apps

You may choose to create your app as a “native” app targeted to a specific mobile platform. For example, you can create an iOS app using Objective C or an Android app using Java. Native apps have excellent performance and integration but also prohibitively high costs associated with the development and maintenance of multiple platform-specific app versions (you have to create and maintain separate apps for iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry … phew!)

Web Apps

Mobile “apps” implemented as websites give you broader reach and better standardization. These try to look like mobile apps but they aren’t really so (they are just websites). These use the familiar paradigm of a web server and a web browser sharing between them the responsibility of executing application logic and executing/rendering UI respectively. You can either create standard web apps or client-side ones using tools such as jQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch. In any case, these “apps” would have no app store distribution, have limited access to hardware features and APIs, and provide inferior rich-media performance.

Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps let you code once (like native apps) and deploy to multiple platforms (like web apps). An increasing number of cross-platform mobile app development frameworks are in use today that let you quickly create high-quality mobile apps simultaneously targeting multiple mobile platforms, such as iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Symbian, WebOS, Bada, etc. Considering adoption rates and number of apps created, some of the most popular cross-platform mobile development frameworks are Appcelerator Titanium, Adobe PhoneGap, and Motorola RhoMobile. Some of these cross-platform mobile app development frameworks can create apps with truly native widgets and with access to native hardware features & APIs.

Cross-Platform App Development

Companies like Mindfire Solutions provide expert cross-platform app development services using Titanium, PhoneGap, RhoMobile, etc. The dedicated Titanium, PhoneGap, and RhoMobile teams at Mindfire have a strong track record of developing powerful and engaging cross-platform mobile apps for global clients across diverse industry domains. If you want to do cool cross-platform mobile apps and need some development help, get in touch with Mindfire today – call +1 248-686-1424 or email sales at mindfiresolutions.com – to leverage the strong track record and solid experience of Mindfire’s cross-platform app development experts to bring your cool mobile app ideas to life.