Technology to consider for your next Mobile App Development
Sunil Khatri
Making Tech easy for Non-Tech founders by coaching & guidance?? | Helping founders build SaaS Solutions from ideas ??| Founder @ Desuvit AS | Co-founder CTO @ Betty24 GmBH
Today, one of the most dynamic business tools is mobile applications, and more businesses are embracing mobile-first solutions for their business.?
I find them an efficient connection-building tool bridging the gap between the businesses and customers. Its myriad functions are unparalleled.?Many businesses and services use mobile apps to facilitate their subscribers and users with a convenient experience. As the studies predict, the current time seems appropriate for investing in a mobile app for businesses.
As per??Comscore, 90% of the time on mobile is spent on using applications, whereas the remaining 10% is on surfing the websites of varied users' interests. Statistical data predict that mobile apps will generate an estimated revenue of?$935.2 billion?approximately in 2023.?
A journey to conceptualize and build a mobile app is not a cakewalk and is a journey of making choices. One should choose the type of app, the complexities, features, the UX/UI design, etc.
The most crucial decision is deciding which technology one must choose for mobile app development. Each alternate is evaluated and reasoned based on its alignment with the business or service objectives and in-depth market research. The success of it, either way, will rely on an astute well-developed business plan and the execution of the project.
Broadly, the mobile development technologies can be divided into three categories,?Hybrid apps, Native Apps, and Cross-platform Apps. Any of the three approaches can be a good fit depending on the kind of app you want to develop, target audience, budget, native features etc.
Let us dive deeper into three categories to see what they have to offer:
Hybrid Apps
A hybrid app is developed as a single app but can be used on multiple platforms like Android, iPhone, and Windows. They are written using standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript) and use webview for rendering the app. Hybrid apps talk to the underlying platform using a native wrapper and leverage the device’s browser engine (but not the browser) to render the HTML and process the JavaScript locally.
Since hybrid apps are built using standard web technologies, they can be developed quickly and works on all platforms. The downside is performance and non-native look and feel. The most popular Hybrid app platforms today are.
Native App
Native apps are built specifically for only one platform; thus, the applied technologies will differ. To handle the development of Android mobile apps, the engineers can apply Java or Kotlin. For iOS development,?Swift?or?Objective-C?programming language will be used.
Since the two platforms are separate, code cannot be shared with each other. This means the development process will take longer, and the app will need to be developed separately on each platform. Since the app will be using the native libraries and platform, the functionality is only limited by the platform. The app will be more responsive and have better performance and native user experience.
Cross-Platform App Development
The complexities of developing native apps and developing for both platforms have a considerable?cost associated with mobile app development. Not all apps require native features and do not need the best performance offered by the native platform. Cross-platform apps give the native look and feel of the app (which is hard to get in the hybrid app) and provide?good performance (much better than hybrid apps and quite close to the native app).
The Cross-Platform development approach uses a native rendering engine. The codebase written in JavaScript/JSX/C# etc. connects to native components via the so-called bridges. This provides the close-to-native UX. Cross-platform apps are free of platform hook, offering?seamless functionality, easy implementation, and cost-effective production. The most popular platforms today to build cross-platform apps are
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Hybrid vs. Native vs. Cross-Platform Summarised
The debate surrounding which app type is best is still relevant today as the lines between the three approaches are becoming increasingly blurred. While the discussion to differentiate the three mobile apps continues, it is essential to remember that you should not choose a strategy for the technology but choose based on what you want your app to do. If you choose the wrong approach that does not allow your app to utilize device features, for example, you will waste a lot of time and money when you decide to add features.
The choice between Native, Hybrid, and Cross-Platform App development is dependent on specific features and several factors, including business needs, app requirements, developer skill, and timelines. The bottom line is that each type of app offers an entirely different experience, and it is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each before jumping into development.
In Summary
If you want to develop a mobile app quickly, do not care too much about the UI differences between android and iOS, have a limited budget, and do not have access to expertise. Choosing a hybrid mobile development technology can be a good choice.
If the mobile app you want to develop requires to use of native mobile features (which are not available in the cross-platform technologies), needs to have native performance, look and feel and you have time and budget then choosing a native platform will be the way to go. Do consider that such an app requires maintaining a separate codebase. So, separate teams will be needed to develop and maintain the apps on the different platforms.
Cross-platform technology has matured quite in recent years and is becoming the technology of choice for many mobile apps today.?React Native?and?Xamarin?were the first to make it a popular choice among mobile app developers. React JS, which is becoming a de facto standard for frontend development, has roots in developing React Native technology. The React philosophy "Learn once, write anywhere." helps the frontend developers to use the learning and apply it for React Native to develop mobile apps. This has made React Native a popular choice for many companies to use frontend developers to develop mobile apps.
Xamarin became the natural choice as cross-platform technology for the Microsoft .Net developers to use their skills for developing mobile apps.
Flutter, on the other hand, is quickly becoming a popular cross-platform technology choice for mobile app development. It has tons of built-in widgets, an easy-to-learn dart language of development, a very good development eco-system, easy debugging, similar native app performance, quick and easy development setup, backed by Google, and now the same technology can be used to create the desktop apps.
If you have decided on using cross-platform technology, I highly recommend looking into the Flutter technology. We at Desuvit have used React Native for the mobile app development and lately have been using Flutter with really good results, with quick turnaround time and ease of development.
Got questions or need help in developing a mobile app, web app, or IT Solution? We at Desuvit have experience working on different mobile development technologies, web portals, and IT Solutions to grow business. We will gladly help you reach your goal.
Until next time,
Sunil Khatri