With the aim of engaging a wide range of user-base, mobile app development companies are trying to deliver apps on all major platforms. However, it is really tough to achieve fame on all the platforms while maintaining the quality of the products and services offered by an organization.
And the most important factor companies face while developing a cross-platform app that it should stick to their budget.
Why Cross-Platform App Development?
In the current scenario, the mobile market is acquired by iOS, Android and Windows mobile operating system. If one wants to develop a mobile app, he may need to develop the app for these three mobile operating systems; or else they can opt to develop a native app if they can afford to lose the user-base from any one of these platforms. Native mobile app development requires very specific tools and resources, moreover, you cannot just share the codes and resources from one to another.
Now, here comes the cross-platform development in the picture. In this situation, building a cross-platform mobile app would be more sensible to compete in the market. It is high time to re-evaluate the approach to mobile app development and choose the right set of tools to get the job done.
Cross-platform development tools offer a simplified way to write codes that can be shared among all other mobile platforms too. There are several cross-platform app development tools available in the market such as Titanium, Xamarin and PhoneGap/Apache Cordova. Among all these, Xamarin offers some astonishing features for cross-platform applications. An organization can hire Xamarin developers to develop cross-platform mobile apps.
So, let’s take a deep dive into these cross-platform app development tools that help in developing a single app for multiple platforms. I will be covering different development approaches to help you understand the concepts and methodology of each development tool.
Titanium:
Titanium is a JavaScript-based development tool that also requires XML for customized user-interface. Developers can write codes using native APIs and UI conventions for every feature. “Write Once Run Anywhere” notion is not applicable for Titanium. It does not offer code sharing and app logic sharing among other applications. One can only reuse JavaScript with platform-specific features and performance.
When compared to other cross-platform app development tools, Titanium seems to be a bit difficult as it comes with lots of limitations. Developers need to learn API and UI individually for every app and other than that JavaScript, which is again a complex language to learn. Titanium only supports Android and iOS, not Windows.
Pros:
- JavaScript offers quick and easy development
- Apps look better and feel better, as apps are built on native UI and API
Cons:
- No third-party library support
- Less responsive towards animation support
Xamarin:
Xamarin is the highly preferred cross-platform development tool because it allows a developer to build a cross-platform app while staying native. Xamarin uses C# and native libraries wrapped in Microsoft’s .NET framework. It offers several tools to develop cross-platform mobile app while staying native such as Xamarin.Forms and Xamarin.iOS/Android.
Applications developed in Xamarin are capable of connecting and running on all devices’ hardware. Xamarin helps developers to eliminate all the hardware compatibility issues. It allows a developer to reuse up to 75% of shared codes. Moreover, developers can also use app logic to build another amazing mobile app. These attractive features of Xamarin save lots of time in the engineering and development cycle of the mobile app and make you hire Xamarin developers for your next app idea.
Xamarin also supports Xamarin IDE (Mac) and Xamarin Visual Studio (Windows). Moreover, while working on different platforms, a developer need not to switch the development environments, as Xamarin supports all major mobile platforms.
Pros:
- Relatively easy to learn, as it works on C# and .NET framework
- It provides up to 75% code sharing and app logic sharing
- Supports patterns like MVVM and MVC
- Xamarin.Android supports wearable devices (IoT) such as Google Glass device, Android Wear
Cons:
- Does not support certain Android specific UI controls
- Impacts load time of the app.
PhoneGap/Apache Cordova:
PhoneGap is the simplest cross-platform framework when compared to Xamarin and Titanium. It is an open-source platform and uses a different kind of technology to develop the cross-platform mobile app. It allows a developer to create spectacular mobile apps while utilizing web APIs. Developers can use standard API across Blackberry, Android, Windows, iOS and Firefox OS and the code will be developed in common web languages, i.e. JavaScript, CSS and HTML5.
PhoneGap offers a cloud-based service known as “Build” that helps you in compiling apps for multiple mobile operating systems, eliminating the installation of SDKs. In PhoneGap, developers can also reuse the codes to build creative and useful apps.
Pros:
- Supports all major mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Firefox OS and Ubuntu
- Experienced developers in JavaScript, HTML and CSS grasp the features quickly
- Offers simple native API with easy porting in different environments
Cons:
- Basic level comprises of lots of fragmented libraries
- It lowers the performance of apps, as it is copied from the web app and launched via a web browser.
While summing up, I would like to recommend Xamarin from all the above-mentioned cross-platform mobile app development tools. However, all Xamarin Developers have their own pros and cons, but you can choose the one that meets your requirements and solve the purpose of the app. Hire Xamarin developers with in-depth knowledge and experience, who will assist you in accomplishing the main purpose behind the development of the cross-platform mobile app.
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