The Power of Mobile Development

Mobile apps have transformed our everyday lives and have become an essential element of most businesses. In fact, this industry is expected to hit nearly $700 billion in 2021 as the smartphone era continues to grow [1]. 

Mobile development encompasses a wide range of possibilities for phones, tablets, smart watches, and Wearable OS and tvOS devices.

iOS was the first platform to bring mobile development into the modern day and age. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, this platform completely transformed the idea of a mobile device and mobile software. iOS applications are typically built utilizing either Objective-C or Swift [3].A few companies currently using Swift include Uber, Lyft,

Although it was released a full year after iOS; Android has the most dominant share of the market, weighing in at about an 80 percent share compared to iOS’s 18 percent. The Android platform is backed by Google, making it open to virtually anyone to build on because it is designed to run on a multitude of different hardware platforms and devices[3]. Java is the official language for Android developers with SDK, but many companies and developers are switching to Kotlin for cross-platform and ease of use. A few companies currently favoring Kotlin for Android include Google, Instacart, Slack, and Netflix.

Developing Mobile Apps: Native and Hybrid

Although the two most popular operating systems, iOS and Android, did a great job of standardizing the types of mobile app development available to programmers, apps can still vary and are typically categorized as either native or hybrid. Native apps are designed for a specific mobile operating system using specialized tooling. These apps are written in the same language as the software they are built for, which means that one and the other are written in the same code. For iOS, it is typically Objective C or Swift, whereas Java and Kotlin are used for Androids. Developers often prefer native apps because they utilize a device’s full potential, meaning they can create unique applications that easily integrate things like wearables, Internet of Things sensors and smart screens for a more personalized experience. 

Developing native mobile apps for each mobile OS is often used because of the speed, security, and reliability associated with it. The downsides of using native applications include higher costs when building and maintaining your app and the multiple code-bases needed for each platform. If you wanted to develop an app for both iOS and Android, you would need to build the entire product twice to meet each platform’s standard [4].   

Hybrid mobile applications, or cross-platform frameworks, adapt a native app as a framework to put a web app into. It allows developers to use web technologies of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to encapsulate those web applications in a container that allows the web application to act like a native application on the device [2]. This is a much simpler process because native mobile applications require a highly specialized skill set. In this case, hybrid mobile apps are just web apps running on an embedded browser environment. This is a viable alternative to native applications because it allows developers to build a mobile app that works across all platforms much quicker. The shared code base between web and mobile apps does come with the downsides of lower performance compared to native apps and there is limited support for native device features. This is because native apps are more specialized, whereas hybrid models adapt and change something that was already made. 

One of the most popular hybrid applications is Facebook’s React Native, which allows developers to build a mobile app with only JavaScript, meaning native apps can be built on both iOS and Android. This is a huge time and money saving advantage because developers only need to make one code, which can then be used for both of the major operating systems. React Native is an open-source platform that allows information, potential issues, and experiences to be shared within a community of experts. Another advantage is that an open-source library of pre-built components greatly speeds up the process of mobile app development that can cut the time and cost in half. It also provides two types of third-party plugins to assist in the core framework: native modules and JavaScript modules. React Native’s declarative coding style makes it extremely flexible and easy to understand for developers.

React Native is newer, faster, and less mature than iOS or Android, which means apps must be regularly updated or problems can arise if safety features and scalability are not considered at the start[6]. A few companies using React Native include the creators of Facebook marketplace, Instagram, Salesforce, Tesla, and Bloomberg [7].

Whether your company is enhancing current digital operations or investing in mobile development to transform your entire business; determining the best platform and finding the right talent can be a challenge. Reach out today to partner with our team to strategize for the best services or staff to execute your vision.   

           By: Meghan Pickett and Jessica Delaney                  

References:

1.    Clement, J (August 1, 2019). “Total global mobile app revenues 2014-2023” https://www.statista.com/statistics/269025/worldwide-mobile-app-revenue-forecast/

2.    AWS. “What is Mobile Application Development?” https://aws.amazon.com/mobile/mobile-application-development/

3.    Sonmez, John (Dec. 16, 2016). “What is Mobile Development?” https://dzone.com/articles/what-is-mobile-development

4.    freeCodeCamp (January 31, 2020). “What is Mobile App Development?” https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-mobile-app-development/

5.    Jaiswal, Abhishek (March 31, 2020). “Mobile App Development in Details” https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/2072a9/mobile-app-development-in-details/

6.    V, Mykola and D, Anastasia (August 20, 2018). “When to Choose React Native for Building a Mobile App and When to Avoid It” https://rubygarage.org/blog/react-native-for-mobile-app-development

7.    Sykutera, Juliana (July 28, 2020). “Top 5 Companies Using React Native” https://redvike.com/top-5-companies-using-react-native/