Cross Platform Mobile Apps And Its Pros And Cons

From the Resource Library of Andolasoft.Inc | Web and Mobile App Development Company

Cross Platform Mobile Apps and Its Pros and Cons

So, let me guess you've decided that your business needs a mobile app. Well then, Congratulations!

Now, let me ask you a super important question - "Are you planning to build a native or cross-

platform app?" If you've not thought about it yet, then start questioning to yourself and to your

team, to your consultant or to the technical consultants of Andolasoft.

Before that let me tell you why this question - If your target audience is divided between iOS,

Android, and Windows phones, then designing and developing for multiple platforms might make

sense, in one go.

Cross-platform mobile app development has the same features like the web application to make the

user interaction more productive.

No doubt, mobile apps are widely acceptable by huge numbers of Smartphone and other handheld

users. Business owners are showing their interest to develop mobile apps because they know that

within a minute mobile app can provide the right information to users with respect to their

questions.

So now you might think - how one app would work on different devices on different networks and

on different operating systems?

Do not worry keep reading below and you will get the answer.


Yes, sure… you are not the one who fails in the same… While working with different clients of

different parts of the globe; and they have asked so many questions on mobile app development to

us.

Let me share few of them,

• Should we build a native or cross-platform app?

• How will I manage my target (iOS, Android, and Windows phones) users?

• How much does it exactly cost and how it will match to my budget?

Single Answer: Cross-platform mobile app development is the solution for all the above questions

and to your doubts as well.

The cross-platform app pulls the power of simplicity and works in multiple operating systems with a

single code base. It's the unique look & feel as well as the user-friendliness that improves the user

retention rates.

(Source: DBbest)


"According to Pavel, the popularity of cross-platform mobile applications can be attributed to the

growing demand for enterprise mobile applications (which will soon outstrip the available

development capacity by 500%)."

The aim of this article is to clarify you about the Pros and Cons of Cross-Platform Mobile App

development. Before that let me tell you the common difference between native and cross-platform

mobile apps;

# A native mobile application meets the requirements of a particular operating system by using its

SDK.

# Whereas a cross-platform application is compatible with multiple operating systems and can run

on any smartphone or tablet.

Cross-platform Mobile app development Frameworks:

Xamarin: C# codebase is used in Xamarin to develop a robust cross-platform mobile app for

Android, iOS and Windows devices which allow code sharing on multiple platforms.

Appcelerator Titanium: It’s a JavaScript codebase cross-platform mobile app development open-

source tool. It helps to develop the app faster and developers can reuse codes in developing iOS,

Android, BlackBerry, as well as HTML5 and hybrid apps.

NativeScript: is the single code base – JavaScript open-source framework for developing native iOS,

Android, and Windows mobile apps. It simplifies the mobile app development to increase

productivity and support UI which can be used in other supported platforms.

RubyMotion: This cross-platform mobile app supports both iOS and Android but needs separate

GUI for iOS and androids. This is widely used, across platforms.

QT: This is the oldest cross-platform framework support both for iOS and Android. QT uses C++

along with QML to develop mobile apps. It’s not easy for programming using C++ but an experienced

developer can be productive with QT.


Pros of cross-platform mobile app development - this is the interesting part...read

carefully.

1. Speed

Cross-platform mobile apps are faster in terms of development as compared to native iOS and

Android apps. One codebase can be used on multiple platforms instead of creating codebase for

each platform.

2. Less Development Cost

The development of the cross-platform mobile app is cost-effective & of course a smart way to

develop your app. It saves your time and money.

3. Simplicity

You can upgrade the app at any moment and fix the bugs without any problem. With technologies

like PhoneGap and Appcelerator, the mobile app developer can easily deploy changes in cross-

platform solution.

4. Consistent Design and Easy for Marketing

Cross-platform mobile apps are consistent in design and well navigated. It helps the mobile app

developers to design different apps in different platforms and helps in proper sync between two

different mobile apps. Though it fulfills the demands of specific sets of people, it also makes

marketing easier and creates better opportunities.

5. Significant Reach

The cross-platform mobile app can reach global users with all types of smartphones or tablets,

whether they are operated on Android, iOS, windows or any other operating system. It seamlessly

runs on all operating systems without any glitch.


Cons of cross-platform mobile app development

1. User Experience

Developing an app for different OS and screen layout is a bit challenging for mobile app developers.

It’s always important for an app to run seamlessly in major operating systems. Major successful apps

are built with native iOS or Android OS to create a better engagement platform with more users.

2. Integration challenges

Integrating cross-platform app to local setting and engaging third-party cloud service is difficult. This

is the biggest disadvantage. HTML5 hybrid apps depend on callback-style programming to

communicate with native plugins, which makes the code unnecessarily complicated. Also for some

tasks, this might lead to impractically slow solutions.

3. Platform limitations

Each platform has a unique set of features and functionality to make the native app more creative.

In cross-platform apps, these functionalities and tools are not available while developing an app for

multiple platforms. Native cross-platform SDKs is not mature yet and its GUI needs to be coded each

time for platform-specific look and feel.

4. No more Flexibility

A medium level phone doesn’t have high-level hardware configuration to read HTML 5 animation

and show the exact GUI and the browser components also vary from platform to platform. So it’s

relatively painful to support old operating systems. To upgrade the app with latest features needs

lots of development work for app developer after upgrading the latest version of SDK.

Conclusion:

Cross-platform mobile app or Hybrid mobile apps offer good performance in a cost-effective way but

native apps give 100% performance and highly productive in nature.

Are you looking for a Native mobile app or Cross-platform Mobile App - Let’s

Discuss Now

http://www.andolasoft.com | http://blog.andolasoft.com

Call at 4086257188 or Email at [email protected]

http://www.andolasoft.com/contactus/

Technology

Cross Platform Mobile Apps And Its Pros And Cons