Everything You Need To Know About Cross-Platform Application Development.
Developing a mobile app in 2020 is not as simple as it was five years ago, a lot has changed ever since then:
The international mobile app development market has earned more than $106.5 billion since 2018 and it has been rising at a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 18.6 percent ever since.
The android operating system has taken over about 73.47 percent of smartphones in the world, compared to that the iOS only shares about 26.53 percent of the operating systems in a smartphone. There’s one more mobile operating system, “KaiOS.” KaiOS is based on the Linux operating system. It comes third with about 0.35 percent. BlackBerry, Windows, Symbian, and other mobile operating systems that we all once enjoyed are no longer with us they have fallen into oblivion.
The Internet of Things (IoT), eCommerce, and Enterprise mobility have altered all the roles of mobile applications. Mobile app development companies in Dubai, often allow mobile app developers to use different tools to distribute their content strategy, manage smart devices, ensure on-the-fly access to corporate data, and help their clients complete transactions faster.
Following are the tools used to create cross-platform mobile apps:
- Xamarin
- React Native
- Flutter
A highly skilled mobile app developer can create mobile applications with more than 90 percent of the reusable codebase. Such reusable codebase would utilize native UI and have controllable elements, and even more, it will have access to smartphone functionality, and comply with material design guidelines and the human interface.
What is the Difference between Cross-platform and Native Mobile App Development?
Native Mobile App Development:
The best mobile app development company in Dubai explains, that a native mobile application requires a particular type of operating system to operate them. This specific type of operating system allows the application to access the SDK and primary technology stack of an operating system which allows the application to use smartphone features such as; hardware memory, camera, sensors, and other programs installed on a device.
Following are the advantages of native mobile apps:
- High performance: The native mobile app development is comparatively well suited for any type of heavy functionality usage.
- Robust functionality: The application's robust functionality allows the operating system to cope with errors during runtime.
- Seamless user experience: Native mobile applications allow the user to have the ultimate user experience.
Cross-platform App Development:
A cross-platform mobile application is compatible with multiple mobile operating systems. Which allows the user to run the mobile application on any smartphone, PC, tablet, smartwatch, and smart television.
Following are the advantages of cross-platform mobile app development:
- 70–90% reusable code: Cross-platform mobile App Development allows you to reuse about 70 to 90 percent of the code.
- Easy maintenance and updates: An application built on cross-platform has super easy maintenance and can be easily updated.
- Broader reach: The Cross-platform application has a much broader reach compared to other coding platforms.
- Shorter time to market: A cross-platform application takes very little time to get its downloads up.
Types of Cross-platform Mobile App Development:
There are two types of Cross-platform Mobile App Development. Following are the two types of Cross-platform Mobile App Development:
Native cross-platform apps:
Every single operating system owns a unique SDK and technology stack: Kotlin or Java for Android applications and iOS applications, Swift or Objective-C is used. Cross-platform app developers in Dubai develop a unified API operating software to be above native SDK, they make sure that they use native IDEs so that any application they built is suitable for both iOS and Android applications. Most importantly they are developed with the same codebase. Native cross-platform applications are mainly constructed with Kotlin Multiplatform, Xamarin, and React Native.
Hybrid mobile applications Development:
Even though mobile applications are developed and designed for tablets and smartphones, it is the back-end coding that handles there any corporate logic. Since both Android and iOS SDKs feature an advanced website component, it is possible to develop parts of a mobile application’s screen or its graphical user interface (GUI) with JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS. After that, the developers have the complete code in WebView. WebView is a browser bundled inside a mobile application, that renders the content of the application as a good, reliable, and aged website. Some hybrid mobile applications even interact with other smartphone hardware, although the functionality for the mobile application can be limited depending on the smartphone. The most reliable hybrid mobile app development platforms on the digital market right now are Flutter and Apache Cordova (formerly known as PhoneGap).
Tool You Can Use to Create Cross-Platform Mobile App Development:
According to the researchers, the custom mobile app development services providers were highly capable of developing a Cross-platform application. In fact, they even told us the tools they used to develop such applications.
Following are the list of tools that they used to develop cross-platform mobile applications in 2020:
- Xamarin
- React Native
- Apache Cordova
- Flutter
- Kotlin Multiplatform
Pros & Cons of Cross-platform Application Development:
Pros:
Following are the Pros are also known as advantages that were included while building a cross-platform mobile application:
- Shorter development timeframe: It is much faster to create a cross-platform application due to the fact that its source code is highly reusable for the developer and provides the same user-friendly UI design for every mobile operating system. This helps businesses decrease the time required to fix any back-end logic issues.
- Exposure to a larger number of mobile users: Most cross-platform apps operate on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS and operating systems used in smartwatches or home appliances.
- Updates synchronization: According to research mobile app development gets four updates each month, and the maintenance costs can consume a huge number of applications earning and that’s where cross-platform mobile applications walk away like a real champ.
Cons:
Following are the Cons are also known as disadvantages that were included while developing a cross-platform mobile application:
- Performance: Cross-Platform mobile app development often compromises its performance while being developed, there is a significant performance breach among native and hybrid mobile applications.
- Steep learning curve: Due to the high level of concept, cross-platform source code is quite difficult to write. Application developer Dubai has specialized in many platform-independent applications that have a good understanding of both the Android and iOS ecosystems.
- Limited support of 3rd-party libraries: Not all 3rd-party libraries and SDKs are supported with cross-platform mobile app development. This prompts the mobile app developers to consider any other alternatives or find another way to integrate the functionality that they require into a mobile app development, which is quite time-consuming.
Conclusion:
The most well-known mobile app development company in Dubai states that if someone requires a cross-platform mobile app development they need to have a complete idea of what they are doing or they would face a lot of issues while developing and designing. In case you require a cross-platform mobile app development make sure to contact us.