The cross-platform app development is a process of developing mobile applications and software that can run on multiple platforms/operating systems (OS). The native app building approach requires businesses to develop separate applications for separate platforms/OS. Which not only cost a lot but sometimes it is also not good for customer experience. The mobile apps have become essential for the modern businesses, studies have shown that the mobile phone users spends their 86% of the time on different mobile apps while on their smartphones. Another staggering statistic is that almost 83.3% of the world population have a smartphone in year 2022 which translates to almost 6.64 Billion smartphones worldwide. There has been a huge growth rate starting from past five years with the year 2017 with the largest increase in the global smartphone users according to a study published in OBERLO. With the rise of mobile commerce and an over-increasing trend of governments offering e-services via mobile apps, the smartphones experience have become even more important for an average consumer.
These all trends and development in the field of smartphone industry led to a worldwide adaptation of smartphone apps. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have also started investing in smartphone applications. As now a days the 98% of the smartphones runs on Android and Apple iOS, so these two are the major platform that you should focus on. Businesses are well aware of the importance of the mobile apps and they are also very active in this domain. However, when it comes to mobile app development the businesses followed several approaches, majorly businesses prefer native apps. The native apps are excellent at several aspects, however, for an average mobile app, the native app development could become too expensive. That is why the cross-platform app development is gaining so much popularity not only in UAE but all around the world. In this blog we will discuss what is cross-platform app development and how is it so valuable and important for the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE.
Cross-Platform App Development
By definition the cross-platform app development is software or mobile app development method which enable the software or app to run on multiple platforms, operating systems or software environment. However, commonly the cross-platform app development is referred to as cross-platform mobile app development. We have witnessed the smartphone evolving from very basic one to highly sophisticated and powerful devices. The smartphone revolution begins with Nokia launching Symbian OS, then other manufacturers also followed and start building their own OS. However, sooner the Android took over the market. In the beginning the blackberry was a good competition but it also faded away soon, due to its exclusivity, lack of app repository and few other problems. Then the Apple gained huge popularity all across the world. Hence the famous competition and rivalry begins between iOS and Android OS. Now in 2022, almost 71% of the smartphone runs at Android OS and 28% smartphones are from Apple which runs on Apple iOS.
When it comes to smartphone apps or mobile apps businesses usually offer Android and Apple apps. The mobile app development have also evolved a lot, the companies have invested a great deal of resources and time in research and development to improve the mobile app development technologies. In fact there are some platforms that significantly increase the reach to mobile app development by offering no-code development platforms. There are also low-code development platforms which are for technical people, who have enough knowledge and experience of programming and source codes. However, the Android OS and the Apple OS is entirely different from each other. The Android operating system is based on Linux and the Apple iOS operating system is based on UNIX. These two are fundamentally different from each other hence the apps developed for these two platforms tend to follow completely different approaches, methods, techniques and programming languages/tools.
Earlier when a business wanted to develop a mobile app for these two smartphone categories they will have to hire two different teams who have skills for these two platforms. For example the Android app developers usually don’t work on iOS apps, and the iOS app developers also not work on Android apps. This results in a lot more problems than a typical software development project. The project manager usually have to manage two different teams, or two different outsourcing partners. This also means the cost of the two apps will also rise. This app development approach is called native app development. There are major differences between the native and cross-platform mobile apps but we will come to that later. Furthermore the Android and iOS mobile apps also tend to behave differently, hence offer slightly different user experience. Businesses always want to offer a universal user experience across all their communication channel, that help strengthening their brand identity too and they also want to minimize the cost of the mobile app development. This is what results in cross-platform app development.
Types of Cross-Platform App Development
With the passage of time the application and software development tools and programming languages also got improved. Now a days there are several software programming languages and platform that allow software developers to easily develop cross-platform apps. The cross-platform app development is not only limited to the mobile application in fact the cross-platform software are very common on other platforms too. Any business would want to reach out to maximum audience, whether they use Android or iOS or any other platform. Your audience would always be divided, if we take the examples of mobile apps, the audience would be always divided in two significantly larger groups, the Android and the Apple. Developing separate apps means additional cost, slightly different user experience at each platform, sometimes even the design could differ too, and there are several other problems. Managing two different teams or vendors is also hectic and increase the operational cost. Due to these reasons businesses love the idea of building a universal mobile app that can run on both platforms, Android and iOS.
Here are some examples of different cross-platform app development methods:
- Hybrid Mobile App Development: The hybrid mobile apps are developed using web technology such as HTML5 or JavaScript. The apps are built on a development platform which puts native wrapper around the app to make it compatible with supported platforms.
- Progressive Web App (PWA) Development: The PWA or progressive web apps are built as a website but behave like a mobile app. The PWA are exclusively built to take advantage of the native features without requiring the user to download the app locally.
- Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD): The RMAD or rapid mobile app development is done via no-code mobile app development platforms. Usually used for internal or small mobile apps with limited functionalities.
- Universal Apps: The universal apps are build using a universal codebase for multiple platform to make an app or software able to run on all required operating system/devices and platforms. The Windows Universal Apps are the example of universal app development method.
Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are eager to enhance their offerings to the customers for the sake of better experience and higher productivity. For that businesses offer multiple self-service solutions and enable their customers to communicate via multiple different channels. For example, instead of visiting a real estate office, you can upload the document through the smartphone apps via in-built scanning feature that can utilize the device camera to scan a document. There are hundreds of different features that businesses in UAE are utilizing to enhance the customers’ mobile experience. That is what fueled the cross-platform app development trend in past few years and we are witnessing a rapid growth in this trend which might remain growing for many more coming years in future.
Benefits of Cross-Platform App Development
The cross-platform app development can literally cut your efforts to half, the businesses don’t have to deal with different teams and they don’t have to pay twice for the same app for different platforms. This not only reduce the initial cost but it also help reducing the operational, maintenance and upgrading cost as well. It makes management simpler and more convenient. Here are some key benefits of cross-platform app development which distinguishes it from traditional app development methods:
- Reusable Source Code: The cross-platform app development allow using a single codebase which eliminates the need of writing different codes for different platforms. Using a single codebase reduce time, efforts, bugs, and simplify the app development process.
- Quick Development Time: Due to reusable code and single codebase the development work is already cut short, furthermore the designing process also become simpler as there is only one UI design which significantly reduce time required to develop cross-platform apps.
- Cost-effective:As there is no need to develop separate apps for separate platforms, the develop cost is very less for cross-platform app development. Furthermore the maintenance and upgrade cost is also very low as business will have to manage only one team/vendor for all platforms.
- Wider Reach: The cross-platform app development allow businesses to reach out to a wider audience who is using multiple platforms. Thanks to the single codebase the cost of reaching out to multi-platform based audience is also very less comparing to native app development.
- Easy Marketing: Since there is only one app that has to be tested and launched, the businesses need very less efforts and time to test and launch the apps. Collecting analytical data and customer feedback to measure the success is easier and relatively simple.
- Consistency: Since the cross-platform apps are developed once the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) is also designed once. It means the cross-platform app development offers uniform and consistent customer experience on all supported platforms.
- Quicker Upgrades and Customization: Since the cross-platform apps are developed on a single code base and then wrapped in the native framework to support multiple native platforms, all the upgrades and customization has to be done once and it will reflect on all platforms.
The cross-platform app development allow businesses to build mobile apps for both Android OS and Apple iOS fairly quickly and with less cost and efforts. Quicker updates and customization also ensures businesses remain up to date and competitive. These are some of the major benefits of the cross-platform app development. The business needs varies so does the solutions, however most of the times the cross-platform app development is the smartest approach to develop reliable apps and software.
Conclusion
The technology is evolving and improving on a rapid pace, which give rise to new trends and sometime a complete transformation in a particular industry. The mobile app and software development has become an integral and essential part of the modern day businesses. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are putting tremendous efforts to maximize the customer satisfaction and to achieve the higher productivity and performance. When it comes to software development or mobile app development, there are several approaches which can fulfil the needs of the business. However, in order to maximize the ROI of a project the business will have to take the right route. The cross-platform app development have become very popular in past few years. It is due to the shift in market trends, growth in the business needs and significant improvement in the app development and software development technologies, platforms and programming techniques. The cross-platform app development is gaining huge momentum and we are witnessing the same growth for a few more coming years.
In this blog we have discussed the basics of the cross-platform app development. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you are looking for a cross-platform app development, feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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