Top 5 Tools for Cross-Platform App Development

You must be aware of Google’s latest update on mobile-friendly websites. This has got companies in a rush to ensure that their websites are tailored to mobile devices. But developing mobile-friendly websites alone would not do. It is important to ensure that your apps are cross-platform as well. What are the cross-platform applications that help you design such websites? There are many, but with each operating system having its own features and functionalities, to design an app that delivers optimum performance on all of these is indeed a tricky task. So, this article does you the favour of listing out the best cross platform mobile application out there:

1. RhoMobile – This is an open source framework that is ruby-based. It helps you build native apps that run on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, RIM, and Symbian devices.
With RhoMobile, you need to write code just once for all major operating systems. RhoMobile makes use of all your Smartphone’s features and builds the perfect cross-platform application.

2. Appcelerator – This is used to design applications for mobiles, tablets, and desktops. To create applications with Appcelerator, simple programming languages like HTML, PHP, JavaScript and Python would do.

3. PhoneGap – This FOSS framework allows developers to create applications for the iPad, iTouch, iPhone, Android, Palm, BlackBerry, and Symbian mobile devices. Using HTML and JavaScript, PhoneGap lets you gain access to hardware features of a mobile device like camera, GPS data etc.

4. WidgetPad – WidgetPad allows you to create Smartphone applications using standard programming languages like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. It is typically used to create apps for WebOS, iOS, and android. Project management, source code editing, collaboration, distribution, debugging, and versioning become easy with WidgetPad.

5. MoSync – Another FOSS framework, MoSync uses JavaScript, PHP, Ruby and Python for cross platform mobile app development. MoSync probably supports the largest number of operating systems including Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Moblin. Support for iOS is provided through MoSync 2.4.

6. Whoop – Though Whoop cannot be featured among the top tools used for cross platform app development, it is nevertheless quite an interesting framework. Even a developer who is not trained in the app development would be able to use Whoop to publish cross platform apps. Actually, Whoop is the ‘tool for non developers'.


The Whoop Creative Studio uses the WYSIWYG editor to allow dragging & dropping of mobile app elements while designing applications for Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry, RIM, and iOS.

Benefits of Cross-Platform Development

There are many things that occupy our mind when we develop an app for our business. Be it Android or iOS, mobile web or mobile browser, we think along the same lines: flexibility, responsive design, security, speed, and performance. But, what plays an overarching role in the success or failure of an app beyond all this is the app’s Cross Browser Capability. This article looks at the benefits of developing apps with Cross-platform-capability and its implications for the end-user.

1) Huge target audience

When you target multiple platforms, it becomes easier to reach more users. Cross platform mobile development strategy can also target mobile platforms on their individual market share. Therefore a company can decide the mobile platforms it wants to target depending on its user demography.
2) Reduced cost of building the app

Cross-platform development allows you to maintain an app and deploy changes easily, as the app runs on multiple operating systems. If the app is updated, the updated version will get synced across the different platforms. Thus, cross platform mobile development reduces the cost of creating and updating the application.

3) Maintain Uniform Look And Feel

Developers often write additional code to maintain the design and feel of the app across different operating systems and devices. While you develop a single app for multiple platforms, a single code runs on those platforms. So, there is no need to deploy multiple teams to maintain the overall design and feel of the app across those platforms.


4) Option to use popular technologies

Technologies like HTML5 has made it easier for developers to build cross platform mobile apps. They can also use specialized tools like Appcelerator to code in HTML5, and then convert the code for other mobile platforms. It becomes easier therefore, for an organization to hire the right programmers for the cross platform mobile application development project.

5) Easy to market the app

When an app does not cater to any particular set of people, no niche message needs to be created. It can be promoted by simply creating generalized messages to target users irrespective of the choice of their mobile platform or device.

The developers, however, must consider some important factors when developing cross platform mobile applications. Apart from choosing the right cross platform mobile framework and tools, they also need to take advantage of the flexibility provided by each mobile platform. 

Choose Your Mobile Development Path

We know consumers spend more time on their apps than on the mobile web. This is borne out by the statistic that says users on an average spend 72 minutes per day on mobile web while they spend 94 minutes a day on apps. The question confronting you the user, is, both hold intrinsic value, but which is the right development path for you? Let us now compare the three mobile development paths, mobile web, hybrid native, and pure native on each attribute one by one.

1. Affordability and Availability of developers

For a mobile web browser, there are millions of web developers out there. As for hybrid native apps, it is easy for web developers to build them.

2. Distribution (App store)

Hybrid native apps can be distributed through app stores but updated independently. Pure native apps, on the other hand, are only updated through app stores.

3. Native device API access

This of course, wouldn’t apply to web browsers. For a native container, camera, location, services, etc. are rendered using JavaScript APIs. This also includes writing native plugins to extend to other capabilities. Pure native apps can access all the device functionality using the native programming language.

4. Cross-platform capability

This is where a browser-based app scores. It will always give you the greatest portability. Native apps save time and money. You write your code once and deploy it across platforms.

5. Monetization

Browser-based apps lose out here. Hybrid native apps, in addition to advertising, allow paid downloads and in-app purchasing. For pure native apps, in-app purchases have already outpaced paid downloads.

Now, let’s look at the advantages and downsides of each of these

Mobile Web

è Low development and complexity

è Search engine discoverable

è Leverages existing web tools and workflows

D  No access to device capabilities or app store distribution

D  No push messaging

  

Hybrid Native

è Low development cost and complexity

è Access to many device capabilities and app store distribution

è Leverage existing web tools and workflows, push messaging support

è Excellent for content-centric apps

D  No access to advanced APIs like OpenGL or multi-threading

Pure Native

è Complete access to device capabilities and app store distribution

è Create graphics-intensive apps like 3D games

è Push messaging support

D  Most time-consuming and expensive

The Growth Of HTML5 – What Lies Beneath?

The growing momentum of HTML5 with mobile developers and the rapid growth of HTML5 enabled mobile browsers and support across the industry (good examples being CoreMob and Ringmark) have immensely helped the growth of HTML5. It is predicted that 80% of all mobile apps will use HTML5 by 2015. With thousands of web HTML developers wanting to go mobile, HTML5 is expected to play a very important role in the efforts of mobile developers to scale to the next level of performance.

What HTML5 offers Developers?

Developers can now directly influence the direction that mobile web is taking and the capabilities of browsers. By coding with HTML5, developers can work more efficiently, hand projects off more easily and reach a broader range of platforms including the rapidly growing mobile segment.

Being non-native and built into browsers is another added advantage since it makes HTML5 more adaptable. This also does away with the need to incorporate third party plugins as they have been included in the build itself.

With HTML5, the developer is faster and more responsive, with only one team and one code base whereas the same work would take at least 3 more teams consuming more resources and more time in the process.

CoreMob

The goal of the core mobile web platform community group is to accelerate the adoption of the mobile web as a compelling platform for the development of modern mobile web applications. CoreMob defines feature sets for each mobile browser level. CoreMob includes W3C, FaceBook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, Samsung, Netflix, Verizon, Vodafone, AT&T, ZTE and SONY.

Ringmark


Ringmark is a web based test suite that measures how well a mobile browser supports the capabilities that modern mobile web apps require. Ringmark tests are based on FaceBook’s best understanding of latest mobile browser feature levels. As Coremob’s recommendations solidify, these will be reflected in Ringmarks’s testing suite.

Native Apps Vs Mobile Web

As the world becomes more and more mobile-friendly, businesses have begun to recognize the benefits of developing apps and mobile-friendly website for their customers. But there are a lot of issues that a business must consider when it decides on delivering its website to the mobile user. It may look like a majority of businesses now are opting for native apps, but you must decide if that is the right decision for your business.  

In this article, we look at the pros and consider of adopting a native and a mobile app.

First of all, native apps are apps downloaded for mobile devices with a specific platform and mind. They can be downloaded and installed directly onto devices from the App Store and Google’s Play.

Advantages of Native apps:

·         Much more popular with consumers.

·         Better User experience than any other mobile optimization solution.

·         It works with all Smartphone tools like cameras and GPS.

·         Included in app stores which make it easier for users to discover the app whether they were seeking it or not.

·         They do not require an internet connection to operate and the app stays on the mobile devices once installed.

·         It is generally faster than using mobile web.

Disadvantages

·         It takes more time and is more expensive to develop than web apps.

·         Requires app store review and approval along with every update.

·         It is open Source-specific, and cannot reuse code from one device to another.

·         Needs additional marketing strategy since it faces high competition from other apps.

·         Takes longer to download and install and requires lots of memory and storage on the device.

·         On the other hand, mobile web apps are less expensive to develop, and require lesser time as well.

So, to decide between native apps and mobile web, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1.       How important is speed and performance?

2.       Do you want to include any device-specific features?

3.       Is an internet connection required?

4.       Will you need to support multiple mobile platforms and devices? If yes, how many?

5.       What’s your budget and timeline?

The Challenges & Opportunities in Developing a Mobile App, 2014

With the increasing number of smart phones and tablets evolution, there is a significant change to the form factor of software solutions. The future looks both bright and positive while demanding more ‘n’ more innovative and sophisticated mobile apps and it seems like the mobile developers are taking advantage of this lucrative opportunity.

Challenges

1.       User Experience

One of the major challenges with mobile application development is user experience. While many app developers treat mobile devices as just another screen, realizing that user interactions and behaviours are vastly different. This makes for an unintuitive and cumbersome experience for users resulting in low adoption and usage of the application.

2.       Development Technology (Native, Hybrid and Web)

Considering the varying capabilities of all the devices and building an app that works well for all of them: one question to consider is, “Should your app be native or hybrid to single platform or whether it should be a web app that runs on all the devices?

This decision is based on the cost as the development budget can escalate if you choose to make your app run on all the devices.

3.       Personalization of Services & Devices

In general, the mobile developers have a presume time within which conversion must be done. This could happen with a quick sign-up process with Facebook or GPS- but still they are not able to turn the potential visitor into an actual customer. The problem is they fail to provide further utilization that can lure the visitor to pay.

Opportunities

1.       Sustainable Advertising

Sustainable advertising help you in generating more revenue which is why app development companies are more focussed on social media, advertising and ecommerce benefits through their apps.

2.       Development of Niche Apps

Developing business apps cater to improvising the efficiency of business and increase the profitability in short period of time, but then this is not applicable for game app development.

All the above mentioned points will surely let you know about the challenges and opportunities involved in the mobile application development world.

Enterprise mobility to Enhance Your Business Reach

Be it any kind of work and personal tasks- from email and schedules to file management and to-do lists, all the tools are conveniently located right in the app store. Enterprise apps allow workers full accessibility to real time data wherever and whenever they need it.

Let’s have a detailed look at how enterprise mobility has become the name of the game.

The Growing New Trend of Implementing Mobile Apps

Employees nowadays are demanding greater connectivity and the flexibility to work from different locations which has influenced many organizations to adapt to enterprise mobility strategy: Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies or allowing employees to select from the already available choose-your-own-device (CYOD) options.

Say for instance, hospitals, clinics usually prefer electronic medical records (EMRs) to store and track medical and clinical data. Meanwhile, the retailers depend on mobile apps that help manage their inventory and logistics more effectively. In such a case, mobility serves both customers and employees in a faster phase which result in strengthening customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Another example is mobile apps for Restaurants: These are a few benefits that follows

ü  GPS directions feature to connect and engage with customers faster

ü  Enable online food ordering system, table bookings etc.

ü  Facilitate push notifications to the customer regarding special discounts, offers on food.

ü  Offer  various loyalty programs through the app

ü  Notify the kitchen staff once the customer is seated, helping to take orders faster

ü  Take door orders at one click

ü  Enable to share favourite food with friends and relatives through the social media share option.

These are a few... there are plenty of them out there.

Why Hybrid?

With the right mix of features, performance and platform support at an affordable cost warns organisations to decide between whether to build a native, web and hybrid app.

The recent explosion in tablet and smartphone sales and growth of BYOD encourage providing mobile apps for staff and customers that run across multiple platforms. This is one reason cross app development flourished. A custom app can help reduce the hassles of organising while facilitating sales, and engage more customers thereby providing the best user-experience.

5 Point Check-List for a Successful Enterprise Mobile App

Enterprises have begun to realize that enabling mobile applications can bring in great degree to drive greater productivity. With this aspect coming into play, building a Mobile solution and maintaining it would take a fraction of the overall investment.

Here are some of the crucial aspects you need to consider while developing Enterprise Mobile Applications.

Gathering In-Depth Business Insights

Understanding complete details can help you overlook on certain factors 

·         how functions are executed currently within a department,

·         where exactly lies the bottleneck,

·         how mobile can bridge the gap and

·         how does the mobile application help users to get their jobs done efficiently

Any negligence here might affect the operations in the long run leading to reduction in productivity and effectiveness of the mobile project.

Measuring Business Process & Development

Along with its detailed layout one can come up with a wireframe design of the Mobile application that allows the team to visualize how the Application would look like. Feedback-Refinement cycle can be carried out at multiple stages to ensure the application is built on user-centric design process. 

Choose App Testing

Obviously, one cannot check the app for every possible scenario. However, polishing the app to make it work smoothly, ironing out the bugs & fixing them in different browser versions, devices or operational systems are a huge task. At the same time performance is critical. Therefore, testing using right tool is a crucial aspect before the App is set for its first release.

Phased-Wise Approach

The simplest way to build a mobile app solution is to do it in stages. Trying to implement everything in one-go might lead to a lot of disruption and delays. At the same time, a staged approach also means a smart way to manage the expectations of business teams.

Appropriate Network Connectivity

One of the major concerns influencing the success or failure of an Enterprise Mobile strategy is network connectivity. Various metrics to consider includes: network connectivity options, connection speeds, reliability, throughput and quality of service so that anybody can access any time, from anywhere be it in office, factory or on the road.

What’s Better than Promoting Your App For Free - Creative Ideas

Have you heard of app entrepreneurs who made it in the app world without spending a penny on promoting their app? Yes? No? Never Mind. You’ll be one on that list very soon.
The cost of a customer acquisition can never be simpler than this.  Here are a few dashing ideas to promote your app for free.

Creative Ideas to Promote Your Mobile App for Free

Make use of Pinterest: Blog images, info-graphics and visual content on your Pinterest board along with happy customer photos or hold contests- what a great combination right? Remember, a happy customer is a brand ambassador for your app

Build a microsite:  A one or two-page which showcases your app to the web audience. Check out Snapchat and Path for clue during mobile app development.

Build a teaser website: Want to know who is interested so much in your app? Build a teaser website before the launch to collect email addresses of people who would like to know when the app launches.

Create a product video: A creative, funny, thought-provoking or personal video that tells a story? Take clue from app like the Dollar Shave Club.

Pitch to app review websites:  Not to mention, websites such as 148apps, AppStore Apps and AppAdvice can generate a lot of buzz for your app.

Manually recruit customers: Know your audience and find them. Reach out to local art schools, libraries and paediatricians to get more customers.

Integrate social within the app:  Obviously, users prefer to share their opinion with others. For instance, “Path app” allows users to share photographs on social media and “Draw Something” ensures you rope in a friend or more.
Make good use of App Store Optimization. You can find it at the app store.

Consider Offering A Promotional Price: In case your app is a paid one, consider a promotional pricing of $0.99 during the launch time. This price point encourages impulse purchases.

Above said are a few of my opinions. Do you think you can give a better idea? Don’t hesitate to share your opinions that might really help mobile app developers.

Simple 4 Questions before Hiring an Android App Developer

Globally, Android is spreading across like a wildfire. The increase in activations more than 500,000 every single day, Android OS is growing ignorable. In that case, cost effective app development is made possible by hiring Android apps developers from offshore locations. However, it is not that easy to find the right developer for your project. So, hope these questions help you in achieving the needful.

App Development Duration: Your first question must be about the development cycle for an average Android app. ideally it takes 2-6 months. In case, if you want your app fast, hire Android apps developers from a company that has the ability to work fast based on your requirements. Pin down the company to a certain date of delivery and ensure that the company has a track record of meeting deadlines. 

Previous Experience towards Working Similar Application Development Projects: A well-reputed mobile app Development Company will usually have developers who possess sound industry knowledge. They will bode well for the future of your applications as well. 

Security measures: while hiring an Android developer from either onshore or offshore location, check for their companies’ security possible. Check for chances if your source code be stolen or reused. Are they trustworthy developers to keep your idea under wraps during the period of development? If you have no idea, its better choose company that has ISO certifications ensuring the security of your code and your app. 

Cost effective: One of the known facts is that offshore companies charge less when compared to their counterparts in US or UK. Still the cost may differ from company to company. So, follow these rules:

·         Make a shortlist of the number of companies that interest you and ask them for a free quote.

·         Then take a look at the services they have been included as a part of the app development project.

·         Don’t fall for the cheapest one. Instead, go for a mobile development company that offers security, expertise and support at affordable rates. 

Is Web Apps the Wave of the Future Mobile World?

Web apps are being touted as the future of desktop and Smartphone applications, can they really succeed breaking all the hurdles seen ahead? Right now, mobile web applications are not a match for native apps in many areas. To make it even better, it’s mandatory to understand the areas where mobile web apps fall short.
Standards-based technologies such as responsive design HTML5 and CSS3 and other modern web tech are the keys to web apps. They can run pretty much on any platform without any special translations or re-programming with standard-compliant web browser. Post the mobile application launch, Smartphone users can access the same app and run it just as well as on any other platform.

However, the fact is web app is fundamentally a website that can be implemented across any platform. Plus, the introduction of HTML 5 has paved way for efficiency towards functionalities and animations of the app development.

Based on the technical and content requirements of an app, further aspects and differences need to be taken into account. To have a better picture, have a look at the below mentioned important benefits of both approaches:

Native apps

·         Native apps uses hardware and software-specific functionalities like integrated camera or address book directly activated.

·         Exclusive memory capacity that it can be even operated without connecting to permanent Internet connection via WLAN or 3G.

·         There is no freedom to design user interface of the native app. This means designers and developers must therefore adhere to the guidelines that guarantee a certain degree of usability.

Web apps 

·         A web app developed is platform-independent and serves multiple end-devices and operating systems.

·         Maintaining HTML5 Application is considerably easier as only one app need to be maintained. Plus, you don’t require assistant to update immediately and no more download issues.

The 5 Greatest Practices to Develop a Mobile App

While the competition is always on fire, companies feel the pressure to deliver super mobile experience to its customers that lasts long and has the right impact. Mobile app development methodologies are getting redefined with upcoming Smartphone and tablets.

Let’s get to know a few basic principles before developing a mobile app.

Native apps are primarily the conventional mobile apps. With high capability to storing explicitly on the device these apps integrates Smartphone features and functionality.  Not only they use APIs provided by OS vendor, but often they have the visual feel of the mobiles they are stored upon.

Embedded with powerful browsers like HTML 5 capabilities, CSS3, and advanced JavaScript, Smartphone has taken a master place for itself. This trend has gained momentum in the recent years.

When there is a strategy to develop flexible mobile application the hybrid apps comes into the play. This touts of all benefits of a native application are developed using web technologies. Not to forget, some of the elements of the apps are also developed using this.

Privacy Policy Recommendations: A Mobile Application Developer should respect the users and create a privacy policy that explains what data you collect and the user practises. Building a privacy policy is an important process, even if you do not believe that you are collecting or using data that would trigger privacy concerns. Also, it should be in detail depending on the information that you collect and use.

Camera and Geo Tagging: For Apps that takes photo, explain your user that geo tagging is applicable which means the location where the photo/ video taken is revealed.


Automatic Sharing: Many social platforms now enable “social sharing” in which a user can share information automatically with other platform users with no big effort. If your application engages in frictionless sharing, provide a clear notice and make sure that users know when automatic sharing is enabled.