5 Advantages of Cross Platform Mobile App Development
In the last few years, the concept of cross-platform mobile app development has taken off in a big way. It allows the developer to write the code once and employ it across all platforms – Android, iOS or Windows. Here are some of the advantages of developing Cross Platform apps.
The mobile manufacturing market is extremely crowded these days with different interfaces, software development kits (SDK) and programming languages. Developing applications for mobiles was getting to be quite challenging in terms of cost, effort and marketing.
In the last few years, the concept of cross-platform mobile app development has taken off in a big way. It allows the developer to write the code once and employ it across all platforms – Android, iOS or Windows.
Some of the advantages of developing Cross Platform apps are:
Codes can be reused
Instead of writing fresh codes for every platform, developers can reuse the same code across all platforms. This also cuts down on repetitive tasks, thus eliminating drudgery. This is not a completely new concept though. It has been used in software development for a number of years now and the benefits of reusing codes have been seen here too.
Controls Cost
Thanks to cross-platform mobile app development, companies now need to invest just once to get their app developed as opposed to earlier times when they had to spend heavily on different tools and technologies. They no longer need to spend on developing apps for every individual platform separately.
For app developers too, the same team can be used to work on diverse platforms.
Quicker development time
App development is much faster, when a single script is deployed. Increased development speed, on the other hand, results in the product reaching the market sooner than before. Time can be spent on thinking out and working on codes for a brand new application. A win-win situation for all concerned –developers, marketers and consumers.
Easier Implementation
There are a number of technologies, these days, like PhoneGap and Appcelerator, offering a cross-platform solution that makes it easier for developers to make changes. For instance, when a tool like Appcelerator is being used, codes can easily be written in HTML5 and converted for different platforms. In other words, utilization of resources you already know about and translating them for different platforms.
Not only does this make development of apps quicker, it also becomes easier to sync updates across all mobile devices.
Sameness and Uniformity
Using cross platform app development ensures that the overall look of the app can be maintained across all platforms since the same set of codes are being utilized. Customers find an app cumbersome and inefficient if they need to use different methodologies for accessing the same app across different mobile phones. They would rather use one that looks and feels the same on both devices.
What are the two main goals of a mobile app developer? The answer is simple: acquire as many customers as possible or aim for a targeted market and engage the customers completely.
It is not a difficult prospect when a majority of the targeted audience is using the same platform. It is then easy to choose which platform to develop the app on. But when the goal is to target a huge audience who could be using iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and others, the app would have to be made separately for the different platforms.
This is where cross platform mobile app development is advantageous. As with all things technological, it cannot be very easy to implement, but the benefits do provide a better outlook for app development in general.