Credits : Dzone

Credits : Dzone

 

New developments in the cloud have significantly impacted the IT landscape. The popularity of cloud infrastructures, containers, and serverless frameworks introduce new challenges in security and deployment, which makes features like firewalled servers and data encryption necessary. The Guide to the Cloud: Native Development & Deployment further explores the state of the industry with exclusive survey data and insights from top executives. Learn more about serverless architecture implementations, asynchronous vs. synchronous models, and leveraging Netflix’s open-source implementation of Hystrix with Cloud-Native architecture.

http://dl.dropbox.com/s/411sgflctjdsm6b/Mob_s.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/s/411sgflctjdsm6b/Mob_s.jpg

 

Much of today’s digital development is taking place on the mobile front. This is especially true of enterprise organizations, which can use these mobile products to improve a range of operations and services. From customer-facing apps and experiences to employee products and data-driven operations solutions, companies are using mobile to become more efficient, more productive and more profitable.

When enterprises sit down to outline their mobile strategies, it’s important that they prioritize API development early in the process. Large organizations are moving beyond standalone mobile apps or products and instead investing in suites of mobile solutions — sprawling ecosystems in which distinct mobile assets are seamlessly integrated to offer unprecedented productivity and experience.

It only makes sense for this mobile innovation to be built upon application programming interfaces, which support better mobile development equipped to support whatever advancements the future may hold.

A framework for mobile development

Some developers will create a mobile app or solution first and then create an API that suits the solution. However, APIs are no longer viewed as optional assets, especially for large organizations. If you’re going to need it in the future, you’re better off building the API first and then using that foundation to create mobile apps.

Once an API is in place, development can happen in several places at once. As Nordic APIs noted, your organization could green-light three different mobile app development projects at the same time, and integration will be a snap because the API is already in place, creating a standard for all these products to follow. This can’t happen if you develop the API after the mobile solution. Organizations seeking rapid mobile growth will be attracted to this API development approach since it supports scalability while minimizing the development cycles needed to produce mobile products.

Improved security for integrated apps

Whenever you’ve integrated one app with another software or solution, security is a concern; the point of this integration can be compromised when the connections aren’t built securely. An API is often the centerpiece of building a solid, secure connection, and it can support other security features that further reduce the risk of a breach.

If you’re an online retailer, for example, you can provide an API to other mobile apps and software that will integrate with your store and sell your products through that platform. The API is necessary to create a secure channel that can handle mobile payment processing. Bear in mind that the API alone doesn’t provide enough security, but it provides an infrastructure that other security measures can sufficiently protect.

Extending audience reach, opening new revenue streams

If you’re able to create third-party sellers or mobile partnerships to drive sales and conversions, another clear benefit of API development emerges: You can create new revenue streams by growing your company’s mobile network. These revenue opportunities could continue to grow as mobile commerce deepens its roots in mobile apps, and as consumer concerns about mobile payment security dissipates over time.

Along with these increased revenue streams comes the ability to grow your audience. API development can lead to cross-promotion, brand integration and other mobile opportunities that generate thousands or tens of thousands of new brand impressions every day. If you choose to make your API public, it’s possible that these impressions will come from third-party sources that require no extra use of your time, money or resources.

These opportunities aren’t available when you build a mobile app that can’t integrate with other products and solutions already out on the market. It’s in enterprise brands’ best interest to build a mobile platform that will grow their digital presence and create opportunities instead of limiting them.

 

 

 

Credits : Prnewswire

Credits : Prnewswire

NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Apalon, a leading mobile development company, is partnering with Caravan Stylist Studio during fashion week in New York with a unique Coloring Book for Me app activation. The partnership launches Thursday, February 9 at The Gregory Hotel (42 W 35th Street) and runs through Thursday, February 16. The Coloring Book for Me activation invites bloggers, fashion insiders, and hotel guests to color life-size images, interact with the app via tablets, and take home cards they can color at their leisure. Guests will also be able to schedule styling appointments and view the presentation of Caravan X Tabii, a zero waste capsule collection by Claudine DeSola and Tabitha St. Bernard.

Coloring Book for Me has 25 million users, who are rediscovering the joy of coloring on Android™ and iOS® devices. The app takes the adult coloring book craze off of the page and into users’ hands via their mobile device. With over 25 color palettes and numerous designs to choose from, the app helps users escape the chaos of their day as they color and edit their artwork in a matter of minutes.

“Adult Coloring Book Apps are all the rage as we rediscover the joy and calm of coloring. Whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s or beyond, Apalon’s Coloring Book for Me is a product that will inspire and bring out the creativity in you. Creative expression and color are key inspirations and themes in the fashion community. We are thrilled to partner with Caravan Stylist Studio and The Gregory Hotel to bring our Coloring Book for Me experience to life during fashion week,” noted Lyle Underkoffler, General Manager, Apalon.

This marks the first time Apalon will have a presence during fashion week in New York. The creativity behind Coloring Book for Me is a natural integration for the Caravan Stylist Studio team.

“All of the dresses we created for Caravan x Tabii are a representation of color so this partnership with Coloring Book for Me is the perfect complement to the presentation. The Caravan at The Gregory always seeks to provide a creative hub for guests during the chaos of fashion week – people are running from one show to the next and this lounge offers a relaxing space where people can tap into their creativity by coloring, listening to a custom playlist by DJ Oreon and the Caravan team, and enjoying treats and hot chocolate by So Delicious,” stated Claudine DeSola, Founder, Caravan Stylist Studio.

About Apalon

An IAC Applications company, Apalon is a leading mobile development company with one of the largest and most popular app portfolios in the world, reaching more than 20 million monthly active users. A unique blend of passion and skills are at the core of the company’s DNA, driving the team to produce top-rated, award-winning mobile experiences for millions of people around the world. Apalon’s portfolio includes well-known titles such as Weather Live, Speak & Translate, and Pimp Your Screen. Learn more at www.apalon.com.

About IAC Applications

A division of IAC (Nasdaq: IAC), IAC Applications brings together a unique collection of award-winning technology companies to form one of the world’s largest distributors of utility applications, with its products downloaded more than one million times a day across desktop, browser and mobile devices. For more information about IAC Applications, its businesses and its products, please visit www.iacapps.com.

Coloring Book for Me is a trademark of IAC Search & Media Europe, Ltd. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. These and all other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  No association or endorsement is implied.

SOURCE IAC Applications; Apalon

Credits : E27

Credits : E27

 

We are well into 2017, and it is high time to take stock of the trends that have come and gone. The market of mobile apps is getting bigger day by day. According to Gartner research, there will be more than 260 billion mobile app downloads in 2016, compared to 180 billion in 2015. The market is supersaturated and really competitive. But there is still a high demand for fine solutions, though. To be up to date, check out an outlook of about five app development trends you should not miss, as created by mobile app development company The App Solutions.

1. More IoT apps

The IoT industry is expanding rapidly and will connect more than 4 billion people, with an opportunity for US$4 trillion revenue by 2020. It will effect a major shift both in hardware and software connected devices.

The core idea behind this trend is not just collecting information, but also provide an information analysis users can rely on while making decisions.

The App Solutions determines two vectors of development for the upcoming year. First is the Rapid Prototype Development that provides the service of prototype creation on a really tight schedule. The second line of activity is the Prototype to Production service wherein we help to complete the project, staff the team with engineers and pick the hardware products.

2. Android before iOS

In 2017 Android has all chances to become a priority platform. Already now Google Play has twice more downloads than iOS App Store. (To be fair we should notice that iOS apps bring more revenue than Android.)

The main reason for this tendency is growing markets of India, China, and Latin America, where smartphones that run on Android prevail. Another significant factor is the evolution of Android ecosystem itself. In any case, the final choice is dictated by the business objectives of each particular project.

3. More UX, less art

The success of a mobile app is defined by the thoughtful user experience, and 2017 won’t change the situation. A diffused background with well-marked and highlighted call-to-action button is a must today. In this way, app owners can help users navigate through the app to the target action. The art should bring a minimum distraction.

Graphic designers and artists will develop UX into an art form. So take a closer look at grid-based interfaces, parallax, split-screens and micro-interactions to gain traction.

4. Security is more important than ever before

Surprisingly, a vast amount of users still don’t take the security issue seriously enough. But it absolutely does not mean that app developers should do the same. With growing development of mobile purchasing and rapidly expanded amount of other users’ private data, security is a number one priority.

Smartphones have plenty of options for user verification like face recognition through inbuilt cameras, voice recognition, fingerprints, SMS codes, and phone calls verification. The whole app security architecture should be carefully checked and improved.

5. Cross-platform apps

Cross-platform apps gain more attention and this becomes another trend that shapes the nearest future. App development customers want to get their apps in the short term and with reasonable price, and frameworks like AngularJS or Cordova are perfect for that.

Another argument for this trend is an increasing number of devices per one person. All apps should look nice, run smoothly, and show excellent performance while connecting to each other.

The takeaway

As a bonus, here are some more trends we all should look out for:

  • Space saving features that will help to solve the problem with constant lack of space;
  • Interactive push notifications can bring the interaction with app users to a new level of communication;
  • Virtual Reality is a bit raw at the moment, but the interest for this area is definitely huge;
  • Сhatbots are already here to take over the care of answering users questions and providing relevant content.

To sum up all the above, we should say that the opportunities of a mobile app market are going to reach US$77 billion during the year. So it is worth trying even if your idea is in a highly competitive niche.

—-

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, submit your post here.

Credits : computerweekly

Credits : computerweekly

 Mobile users have high expectations, and there is no such thing as one size fits all. We look at how this affects mobile app development

Many organisations see mobile applications as a great way to engage with employees, consumers and individuals from other businesses. Mobile app development has moved from being an afterthought or lightweight mobile version of a traditional application to a mobile-first mentality.

Mobile users have high expectations, and there is no such thing as one size fits all. Many will use different device form factors – smartphones and tablets – and a mix of operating systems, sometimes interchangeably.

This has a profound effect on mobile app development. Mobile apps will not only need to be available on a given user’s preferred device, but also work consistently across different devices.

Apps also need to deliver value to users and be engaging, which means mobile app development should encompass innovative and unusual areas beyond traditional application development.

Smarter focus on the user

The user comes first. Much emphasis has historically been on aesthetics and look and feel, but this is now shifting to usability, effective interaction and the overall user experience.

To improve usability and engagement, some of this interaction is moving beyond the traditional small mobile screen into virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR).

Although the immersive nature of VR has long appealed, it was AR which had a big boost in 2016 with the popularity of Pokemon Go. Despite sounding similar, VR and AR have entirely different purposes and require completely different thinking from a developer perspective. The impact of AR is likely to be broader than VR as it can be added to so many applications and does not force users to become immersed, but simply assisted as their physical and digital worlds overlap and can therefore be applied to existing mobile devices.

Products in this fast-paced and embryonic area come and go, even large ones such as Nokia’s Here, and there are probably more open source projects than proprietary AR development toolkits, such as ARToolkit and development specialists such as Azoft that can help with the integration of AR. HP’s Aurasma, Blippar and Wikitude provide end-to-end capabilities with maturing software development kits (SDKs) for app developers to use.

Putting mobile into context

It is not only the front end of mobile applications that are changing. At one time, the focus for mobile context revolved around location and the opportunity for location-based services, which in some respects has morphed into appetite for AR. Now there is greater emphasis towards a broader contextual understanding that exploits the sensory reach of the mobile device environment in combination with the power and capacity of big data in the cloud. Combining this with remote capabilities to exploit artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and what is sometimes termed ambient intelligence (AmI).

AmI often makes an appearance as personal assistants and chatbots in many scenarios, but there is no reason why intelligently supported mobile interaction should not be used in mundane activities – simplifying communications overload from email, for example – or enhancing enterprise applications.

Already, Microsoft has integrated its Intellisense into Visual Studio, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced Amazon Lex integration. While Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and even Google Now have struggled to gain more than geeky adoption, Amazon’s Alexa has really taken off and is already being touted for business applications. This will have an impact in mobile application development as voice-initiated applications spread.

Emphasis on user experience will often benefit from an agile approach to software development, with prototyping and user involvement as early as possible. Rapid prototyping and citizen development where non-programmers can turn business ideas into mobile applications shifts the attention to quickly generating value. There are a number of “low code” or “no code” platforms targeted at non-technical app builders, which use a mix of rapid prototyping and cloud-based back-end services, such as Appery.io, MobileSmith, K2, Kony’s Visualiser, Mercato KnowledgeKube, Mendix and OutSystems. These approaches make it easier to match functionality with need, and free up time for others to address some of the more technical development challenges.

Engineering the mobile experience

Despite all of the gloss required to make mobile applications engaging, they must still be engineered to work on a range of devices – producing applications that run effectively across multiple platforms is the eternal developer challenge. Mobile makes life harder with the range of device types and operating systems, limited and variable-sized screen real estate, intermittent network connection and user expectations of a simpler experience.

Managing a series of different variants for different platforms is a challenge. While universal “write once, run anywhere” platforms such as Java have been around for some time, the reality is a little more complex. Not only do operating systems and platform application programming interfaces (APIs) vary, but native programming languages do too; Java on Android, Objective C on IoS (although Apple’s new language, Swift, will grow this year) and C++ on Windows Mobile. However, there are four primary mechanisms through which mobile cross-platform development can be easily achieved: mobile-styled web apps, hybrid apps, cross-compiled apps and back end as a service.

• Mobile-styled web app: With a far more settled HTML5 standard, JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets, and tools such as Sencha, this is a quick way to blur across the differences in platforms, but ultimately not as functional as alternatives and with less control for the developer.

• Hybrid app: An expedient combination of native and web development approaches, originally popularised by PhoneGap, where a lightweight native app launches an embedded browser. The open source Apache Cordova is the common starting point for PhoneGap but also for other hybrid tools such as Telerik and Ionic.

• Cross-compiled app: Here, products such as Xamarin (owned by Microsoft), Appcelerator or 5App enable developers to write code in one language and then convert to native code for the target mobile devices. Native is best for ultimate performance – generally vital for gaming, less so for most enterprise apps – and it also gives complete access to the features and functionality of the underlying platform. Others, such as RubyMotion, use Ruby and then compile into native applications.

• Back end as a service: This is a relatively recent trend, to offload much more business logic into the cloud. Some, such as Kai, AnyPresence or Kumulos, will work well for independent developers. Others, like Kinvey, are targeted at the enterprise. Among the larger cloud players there is also AWS with its Mobile Hub and Lambda, Google has CloudFunctions, and IBM’s serverless initiative with OpenWhisk.

While focus on the mobile user is important, and may now be a primary rather than secondary focus, many enterprises will require applications to function well across desktop as well as mobile device platforms. While there are many low-cost, open source and specific mobile-first and mobile-only tools, there are also more fully functional enterprise development platforms to consider, from Kony, Pega ApplicationMobility Platform (formerly Antenna) and the SAP Mobile Platform. These offer complete environments for development, delivery and management of mobile applications.

Making time for testing

The huge number of devices and operating systems variants with associated emulators creates challenges for testing, especially as users are unforgiving of problems and will quickly ditch underperforming apps. Software testing is often a bit of an afterthought in any event, especially when there is pressure to get quickly to market, and to be done properly testing needs to be carried out on real devices, not just emulators.

The only realistic way to do this is to automate as much as possible. Service providers offer one route, such as SauceLabs’ TestObject, Perfecto Mobile and Xamarin with its Test Cloud, offering cloud-based access to large numbers of real mobile devices. For those looking for automation to record a test process and then run it across different devices and languages, there are open source tools, plus offerings such as Sigos, Ranorex and Experitest’s SeeTest.

As well as functional testing, it is just as important to test the user experience, and often this can only be done in conjunction with users once the app has been at least partially released “into the wild”. This might include recruiting users into a usability or beta test programme with tools like Userlytics, Appsee and Applause, or viewing their facial and vocal reactions while they are using the app with something like UserZoom or Lookback.

There is also security testing, and the software vulnerability scanners have been adapting for mobile code, and additional services such as Veracode’s Mars (mobile app reputation service).

Delivering a seamless experience

Mobile applications have come a long way in the 20 years since the appearance of the Nokia Snake game. There are not only functionality and performance gains, there are new commercial models that have transformed what applications have become – less of a point product and more an element of a service.

Apple’s “there’s an app for that” slogan highlights the ubiquity of mobile, while Android’s “be together, not the same” indicates that there is commonality, despite variations in devices. Users expect a seamless and universal experience, but mobile app developers know they will need a lot of help along the way to deliver that.

Rob Bamforth is a principal  analyst at Quocirca.

Credits : Computerweekly

Credits : Computerweekly

Santander bank wants to make its staff more productive through mobile apps, which it will create alongside IBM.

Spanish bank Santander is working with IBM to develop iPhone-based mobile apps for its staff to help them engage better with customers.

IBM is also working with Apple on the project, and a suite of IBM MobileFirst apps will be designed using Apple’s modern programming language, Swift, for 11,000 Apple devices at the bank. These will be used by staff across the corporate, small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), private and retail banking operations.

IBM MobileFirst has mobile application development modules and application management capabilities.

Santander employees will have quick access to up-to-date information on products, services and clients, which the bank expects to help them make better recommendations to customers.

The apps are designed for employees working in Santander’s central offices and the banking network.

Apps will include a tool to help staff measure how they are meeting targets on products, customers and in certain regions. There will also be an app that provides mobile access to metrics to support risk management.

Javier Cuenca, ‎managing director of technology and operations at Santander, said: “Collaborating with IBM will help us accelerate our digital transformation and improve the client experience to anticipate customer needs.”

Every app will be integrated with Santander’s enterprise systems, giving staff quick access to real-time data.

Santander is using IBM’s app design and development model – Mobile at Scale – and plans to roll out the first the set of apps in April 2017. It will develop apps over the next two years.

“Santander is committed to reinventing how it conducts business, beginning with creating ways for bank employees to engage with business customers for an exceptional banking experience,” said Gareth Mackown, European mobile and Apple leader at IBM.

Credits : Techspot

Credits : Techspot

 

Aspiring mobile developers take note: knowing how to work with the most popular tools is key. That’s why Android is the ideal operating system for new developers to work on. Android is the world’s most popular OS and its capabilities continue to grow with each update. Pick up the Ultimate Android N Development Bundle, and you’ll learn how to work on the Android platform and leverage its new features to build new groundbreaking apps.

Featuring 5 courses, this training will help you take the first step towards developing on Android. You’ll start by getting comfortable with Android’s free development tools. Then you’ll dive into Java and start building your own projects. You’ll discover how to design app interfaces and scale images to show up correctly on any device. Then, you’ll get your hands dirty organizing data, building menus, and integrating your projects with other apps like YouTube. On more advanced courses, you’ll tackle XML, JSON, and learn how to use essential database tools SQL and SQLite.

Meant for beginner to intermediate programmers, with this Android N Development Bundle you can go from zero to advanced and you’ll only pay $39, that’s 90% off its usual $415 retail price.

Credits : Shutterstock

Credits : Shutterstock

 

Mobile web sites are a growing design issue. According to StatCounter GS, mobile web access has risen to 36.54% in the United States as of January 2017. Internationally, according to the same set of statistics, mobile phones have overtaken desktops as the primary means of accessing the internet by approximately 4%.

This means that companies seeking to reach customers need their sites to be easily read and navigated by smaller screens and devices that may not support Java or cookies. But what works best? And what should IT departments focus on when improving or developing mobile sites? Experts on the Forbes Technology Council have this to say:

1. Put Priority Content At The Top

Place high-priority content, such as phone numbers, address or directions, at the top of the website page, so that users can quickly get to it without having to scroll. Don’t fall into the trap of “stacking” low-priority content over high-priority content. – Andrew Kucheriavy, Intechnic

2. Foster An Environment Of Continuous Experimentation And Improvement

Good UI/UX is hard. Don’t imagine you’re going to get it right the first time. Experiment with alternatives as much as you can during development. Consider A/B testing technology that lets you run experiments to evaluate interface alternatives and to respond quickly to the findings. Implement continuous integration and deployment techniques that let you release improvements regularly. – Manuel Vellon, Level 11

3. Ask Users About What Works And What Doesn’t

It helps to know from people using it every day what works and doesn’t, so go straight to users and get their feedback. After all, you want people to use it, and there’s no better perspective than those that already do. – Chalmers Brown, Due

4. Don’t Make Mobile An Afterthought

An increasing number of people use a phone or tablet as their primary way to interact with websites. You can’t slap together a mobile site as an afterthought and expect to be successful: Mobile should be a first-class citizen from the start. Also, resist the temptation to suppress certain content completely on mobile. It may be much easier, but some visitors may never come to your site on a computer. – Jay Oliver, GeekHive

As app developers, we are fortunate to often work with clients who are launching their first app. It’s a collaborative process that always leads to amazing products, built from the ground up. Then there are other times where we’re brought in after an attempt has been made… and usually not a moment too soon!

If you’ve ever tried to do your own plumbing, app development is like that: it can be way more complicated than you’d expect, and tiny details can be the difference between a flushing toilet and a rising tide of horror. So when do you know if your company is in over its head when it comes to making an app? Here are three red flags that will signal when it’s time to outsource your mobile development.

 

imac-606765_1280

Credits : Business2community

1. Your app development time table is too long.

According to a recent survey by outsystems.com of over 3200 IT professionals, 40% said that it took between 6 months to over a year to deliver a finished app. Did we read that right? By the time the app comes out, it’ll already be obsolete! That sort of lengthy development time for software can make or break a business, especially in our mobile-first world.

There are a slew of reasons why apps can stew in development hell, but it usually comes down to one thing: resources. A good app, like any good software, takes a lot of effort. You need a rock-solid design that can translate to rapid iterations of wireframe models, your backend team communicating well with your UX team, and a deep understanding of best practices at every step. Poor sprint management always leads to lengthy delays, so project management is also paramount to timely app development.

Recommended for YouWebcast, February 28th: Sales Automation Made Easy

All this can be nearly impossible for even enterprise-level companies to accomplish. If your app’s launch date is continually getting pushed another two weeks, it’s probably time to outsource development.

2. Your MVP is bad.

Lots of tech blogs say that get to your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and push it live, then iterate quickly. Although this has been repeated countless times, we don’t think this is great advice when it comes to mobile apps. The reason is that smartphone users just don’t give new apps much of a shot.

App downloads are slowing, perhaps by up to 20%. That means less people are downloading new apps altogether. Meanwhile, 77% of users don’t open a new app again after 72 hours, and it’s often because that initial experience is just not up to snuff. So we have a user base that is both reluctant to download new apps, and to give new apps much of a chance. And you want to release a half-baked MVP? Hmm.

 

ux-787980_1280

Credits : Business2community

When it comes to mobile software, first impressions matter more than businesses realize. After all, there are often many other similar apps to choose from. If your company is racing to put out a MVP that is just so-so, you might be setting yourself up for a situation where you won’t get a second chance. It’s important to put out the best app you can from the get-go, and outsourcing your app can ultimately nab higher ROI when loyalty is earned due to a better product.

3. You just don’t have the expertise.

Seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised just how many companies lack the skill set internally but still forge onward with a complicated app development. Almost half the IT professionals surveyed in the outsystems.com report said that there was a knowledge gap with mobile that slows development.

It’s no secret that there is a shortage of mobile app developers which is a growing problem for the industry as a whole, but also for individual companies that try to rely on unproven talent to build their apps. Remember, it’s not just the app itself; it’s integration with the backend, it’s integration with the cloud, it’s security, it’s speed of deployment, it’s scalability. It’s a lot, and even enterprise-level companies have stumbled at the scope of their mobile projects. Even if they technically have the resources (aka man-power), the lack of expertise will slow development to a crawl.

Look, not every company can quickly get up to speed on iOS’s latest changes or programming in Swift. If you’re spending more time (and money) on just learning the skill set instead of developing, it’s time to outsource your app.

 

Credits : Itproportal

Credits : Itproportal

 

When those sudden moments of genius strike, you could be onto the next big thing – the new Angry Birds or Snapchat might be around the corner. But the main practicality in converting an interesting idea into an application is deciding on your platform of choice.

Currently, iOS and Android are the main contenders for introducing a new app; both have advantages and disadvantages in certain areas, which can be a minefield for the new market entrant.

However, help is at hand in the shape of cross platform mobile development tools, which have become increasingly sophisticated of late as demand has risen. These help to reduce the development time of applications by enabling developers to re-use code across multiple platforms, resulting in less room for error as the same code is shared between multiple platforms, and also generating a codebase which is more easily maintained and updated. The tools can provide a side by side comparison which helps to maintain design consistency throughout each environment.

When it comes to stand alone consumer apps that target the Play Store and App Store, we at ByteSnap recommend that it’s best to choose one core platform to deliver on first, as the potential user base is in the multi-millions. Once established, then approaching alternative platforms with the learnings from the first is considerably easier.

However, there are cases where simultaneous development and release across multiple platforms are a key part of products feature set – such as apps that ‘talk’ and integrate with specific hardware for additional functionality. This could encompass IoT products or particularly ‘hot’ new hardware, for example.

Native vs cross platform?

It is important to note that cross development tools come in mainly two flavours – native cross development and Hybrid cross development.  Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, but if you’re in any doubt, our software consultants at ByteSnap Design are expert in cross platform mobile development and are well placed to assist.

Once you’ve made your choice between native and hybrid cross platform app development, you’ll be needing one of these tools for cross platform mobile development:

Xamarin

Xamarin has become one of the leading solutions providers in the native cross platform application development market.  The tool allows developers to use a C# codebase to build Android, iOS, Mac and Windows apps.  There is native API access across the supported operating systems and also the ability to add “components” to an app for plugin functionality, such as barcode scanning, in-app billing and a multitude of custom controls.

Xamarin provides a plethora of reference material – API documentation, example code and even boast a “Xamarin University” to help support developers – and the vibrant development community means there are also a lot of new components and custom controls being developed.

After Microsoft acquired Xamarin it became free to use with versions of Visual Studio. The Xamarin Test Cloud is worthy of mention; a 2,000-strong real device testing suite in the cloud where users can setup tests and get comprehensive results including performance statistics, screenshots for the steps taken and compare for regression testing.

Appcelarator

Appcelerator Titanium boasts the ability to make “native” mobile applications on iOS, Android and Windows Phone using one JavaScript Codebase. If there is any functionality where the native API is not exposed through the Titanium API set, then the developer can make a “module” written in native code to expose this functionality. This makes this platform ideal for creating apps that are close to native in performance, especially where the developers are well versed in JavaScript.

Appcelerator recently announced Hyperloop – which vastly increases the power of this as a true cross platform mobile development tool, as Hyperloop exposes all native functionality for iOS and Apple – with planned support for Windows Phone in the future.

Like similar tools, Appcelerator provides analytics and third party components to implement 3rd party modules. For enterprise customers there is also the option for using a virtual private cloud server for storing sensitive data.

Qt

The oldest cross platform development tool on our list, Qt had its initial release in 1990.  It has possibly the largest list of supported mediums, most notably Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows, however also reaching Mac OS, Linux, Sailfish, QNX and more.

The latest versions of Qt (5.6+) include a great amount of mobile application support, adding in functionality for high DPI, navigation and themed UI. Since then, more controls have been added to these styles which cover Material Design (Android), Universal Design (Microsoft) and Qt’s default style.

There are two current forms of Qt, open source and commercial. Each of them carries different licences that are applied to the generated application and this should be taken into consideration.

Adobe Phonegap/Apache Cordova

Adobe PhoneGap uses the open source project Apache Cordova as its engine and is one of the most popular, go-to, development environments for cross platform web applications. Because it is open source, PhoneGap is free to use and boasts the ability to interface with other Adobe technologies, as well as a large list of third party tools such as PayPal, Testing SDK’s, Analytics and Barcode decoders.

PhoneGap developers write applications as web apps. These leverage the WebKit installed on the target device using HTML, JavaScript and CSS as the language. This way, they trade performance and some level of native interfacing for portability and reusability.

PhoneGap also offers cloud services (PhoneGap Build) for building and distributing applications to the relevant app stores, removing the reliance for maintaining target native SDKs and to push systematic updates to target phones as part of the development cycle.

Sencha

Sencha, similar to PhoneGap, makes use of HTML5 to achieve cross device portability. Though it has many applications and tools available to developers, such as; Architect, Themer, and various IDE Plugins, the main offering for mobile applications development is Ext JS. Once the application has been built developers can use Sencha cmd or Cordova to use device specific API calls to achieve close to native functionality.

Sencha offers a library of prebuilt UI components and accompanying UI themes, with the ability to write custom modules to expose native functionality. They also have an automated test suite available which leverages the Jasmine framework for JavaScript. Standard licences start at a minimum of 5 developers and provide a good entry point.  However, the premium licence contains some crucial development tools such as debugging and analytical data.

Graeme Wintle, director, ByteSnap Design
Image Credit: Nito / Shutterstock