Today, the market scenario is heavily driven by the user perspective. According to recent stats, 65% of online shoppers use a shopping app to receive exclusive discounts. The stats make it quite evident that the apps have become an undeniable part of the ecosystem that fuels business growth. The app development world seems to be divided between whether to offer businesses a responsive website, a native app, a cross-platform app or a web app. But here we have seen that cross-platform mobile app development has gained some traction lately.
Apps have become an integral part of our lives. We start our day with an app buzz and end up spending 48% of our mobile usage time on social networking, music and gaming apps. The Google Play Store is brimming with competitive apps (2.6 million as of December 2018) and the infiltration is not showing any signs of slow down. The worldwide mobile app market is projected to hit $935.2 billion in revenue by 2023.
What is the cross-platform app development?
Cross-platform mobile development refers to the development of mobile apps that can be used on multiple mobile platforms. In the business world, a growing trend called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is rising. … These tools are useful because they decrease costs and increase the speed at which apps are developed.
Advantages:
- Timely – Unlike native apps, cross-platform apps use a single codebase which one could apply across a variety of platforms. You’re essentially cutting dev-time in half.
- Exposure across markets – Choosing a specific platform isn’t even a question here. Your app will be exposed to both the Android and iOS markets.
- Wallet-Friendly – Fewer developers per project are needed. Less human resources equal more money saved.
- Ease of update – In today’s market, many app publishers will launch updates up to four times a month. Maintenance can be costly but since the updates will affect multiple platforms at once, these costs are kept to a minimum.
Disadvantages:
- Performance Issues – This is no doubt the largest issue looming over cross-platform apps. The computing power of smartphones is relatively small compared to desktops. The rendering of HTML5/CSS UI components present in cross-platform apps takes a lot of GPU/CPU resources. This decreases the app’s response times resulting in performance delays or even causing the app to freeze altogether. These delays are noticeable when scrolling and in animations.
What is a Native app development?
Native mobile app development involves building apps for particular mobile operating systems, and users access them from dedicated app stores (such as the App Store or Google Play). If you intend to build an application for iOS, app developers will use programming languages Objective-C or Swift.
Advantages:
- Most Natural User Interface (UI) – When developing native, you can take advantage of specific tools for creating interfaces and interactions that are at home with the platform’s aesthetic. This translates into an experience that is familiar to the user, encouraging them to keep using the app.
- High Performance (UX) – If the code is sound, flawless performance gives native apps a huge edge. Their native code speaks directly to the platform’s hardware and software without the need to be translated in any way; this results in response times that are not realized by cross-platform apps.
- Platform Features – Certain apps have functions that work off of customized preferences. For example, a user that has bad eyesight can adjust the overall font-size displayed on the platform. If the app is native, this enlarged font would be applied to the app as well.
- Development Tools – Native development is much more generous than cross-platform. Native tools are greater in abundance and ability. They enable better testing and debugging functionality.
Disadvantages:
- Time consumption – Since the same code can’t be used for more than one platform, developers will need to spend more time translating, in many cases rewriting the code.
- Human Resources – The average human is only truly proficient in one written/spoken language. Developers are the same way. To develop native apps for multiple platforms, businesses would need to hire more than one developer. Individual developers generally come as specialists and if one is an expert in iOS, chances are he doesn’t have the know-how to successfully code an android app.
Nowadays, a few things have changed, especially when it comes to UI. The efficiency of devices has increased and the market fragmentation decreased—there are only two players: Android and iOS. Only four years ago we were creating a mobile banking app for the largest Polish bank for iOS, Android, WindowsPhone, Symbian/Java and Blackberry…
We believe that React Native is the very first framework that allows us to create a mobile app, which will work both on iOS and Android when we don’t have to compromise on the speed, efficiency, and overall look and feel. As a mobile app development company, we are continuously polishing our app development team’s skills to provide the best app development feel to our client as compared to the other one. We are specialized in e-learning and ride-booking apps development. So do you have any project in your mind? feel free to contact us on @forebearpro.com
