The variety of apps, multiple numbers of platforms confuses business owners a lot. There are different approaches to develop an app and one approach is not necessarily better than others. It all depends on requirement of the project and market strategy. If we also talk about different platforms, there is huge competition between them also, but the two major Android and iOS are ruling the world.
Different analysts over period of time try to figure out competition among these two. According to recent survey iOS is ruling markets in USA and Europe while android won the battle in the Asian market. But our subject is different types of apps so let’s discusses technicalities of these apps.
Cross Platform apps
It refers to development of mobile apps which can be used on multiple mobile platforms. There are various situations where Cross-platform apps hold advantage over native apps.
1. Cross platform apps are more desirable when company see business from monetary perspective as it grants access to variety of markets i.e wider user database.
2. Cross-platform applications are preferred when there is urgent need to release an MVP version of product to impact the market instantaneously.
3. Cross-platform apps are cost effective as compared to native apps, as different platforms allows for consistency and synchronization over multiple devices.
4. Cross-platform developmental approach is time saver also as it uses single code across multiple platforms. So it saves time in respect of code re-write and platform customization.
5. Cross-platform apps benefits easy launch and updates. Subsequent changes and updates on the app affect multiple platforms simultaneously.
These are some benefits of cross-platform apps. But as a developer my vote goes to native app development approach. It is true that developing Native app will cost you more than cross-platforms and it takes lots of time too. Dealing with different native apps for different platform is complex task too. But see instead of these problems what we got on the table.
1. Native apps show better co-ordination with device’s functionalities like camera, microphone, compass, accelerometer, maps and swipe gestures.
2. Code runs faster and better. There are no limitation in terms of app performance and speed. This is big advantage of native apps over cross-platform.
3. Hardware related functionalities like gesture, multi-touch events, geo location tracking are much easier to implement.
4. A better user-interface is guaranteed with native apps, the look and the feel, best usability of an app as it is developed for platform specific. This will contribute to an overall positive user experience and encourages repeated use of app.
5. Smooth audio, video and images processing on native apps. Your application includes encrypted data with native apps.
So as a business owner, your all business related decision should be user-centric. Your user may not differentiate cross-platform and native mobile apps code wise, but they will surely feel the difference on user interface. So all we want to say is that Native apps provide best chance at accommodating platform specific user experience. Native apps are deeply connected with devices to ensure best uses of each and every functionality. So if you want to go for mobile apps, make sure what are your users demanding.
Saran
September 15, 2020 Author