The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Cross-platform Mobile Application Development

By Author: Kelly Burby
Total Articles: 349
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Mobile application development firms mostly face difficulties when it comes to design, develop and implement such apps that can appeal both Android and iOS users. They are asked to design apps with cross-platform compatibility. Their clients want applications that function in similar way regardless of platform dissimilarities. It is seriously a big issue as both Android and iOS are two different platforms, and apps for them are built using two different sorts of tools, technologies and practices.

Of course, developers have cross-platform mobile frameworks, such as Adobe’s PhoneGap and Appcelerator’s Titanium that help in conceiving decent apps for both user-camps. However, these technologies cannot be an ultimate choice for cross-platform mobile application development. There are advantages and disadvantages in using these technologies, and here they are:

Advantages

Development takes less time and less investment

It sounds little awkward but it really happens. When developers use cross-platform technologies, the project ends-up faster and takes less time. Even the code generated ...
... using these technologies can be reused at primary level of other projects.

Access to plugins that can be used in other projects

Cross-platform technologies like PhoneGap and Titanium provide easy access to plugins that developers can quickly use in other tools and services. They also offer common links to camera, location sensors and accelerometers. It avoids the need of writing a separate code, because a single set of code can automatically run on both Android and iOS powered devices.

Web developers can easily use the code

Web developers can easily use these frameworks as they are designed for scripting languages. HTML, CSS and JavaScript form the basic structure of majority of web based cross-platform mobile
applications.

Desired support for cloud services

If clients want integration of cloud services, these frameworks allow developers easily doing so. There is also no need of a multiple security method as apps function similarly on both platforms.

Disadvantages

Update cannot include all supporting features

Apple and Google keep adding new features to their platforms. This can create problem for developers as the framework they are using will need to be updated for the improvements made by Apple and Google in their platforms. Sometimes, it may not allow all the information passing through communication “bridge” that the framework forms. Developers of frameworks are working to find answer for this issue.

Restrictive tools cannot enough freedom

Frameworks like Adobe’s PhoneGap and Appcelerator’s Titanium authorize to use decreed tools. By using these limited tools, mobile developers implement various functionalities that may be different from the ongoing fashion. It may require user learning things all over again. It can be frustrating too.

Slower codes increases the rendering time

Apps resulted from cross-platform mobile development technologies can be slower than regular ones. The code may take long time in getting rendered as it has to churn out for each platform.

The code that is ineffective

The code procured using frameworks can be dramatically ineffective. Developers do not use native languages when they use cross-platform development technologies. In this condition, the effectiveness of an app is determined by the effectiveness of the translation engine that the tool has.

This useful information is brought to by experts in mobile and web application development.

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