Emerging Technology: Native Android and Apple device development

This is a personal favorite of mine and fits in nicely with the previous post on the benefits of API development and a middleware solution to integrate with an organization’s internal systems.

Some posts on the web will go into extreme technical detail on this, I will try and keep this very high level with business-based bullet points.

There are 2 ways for a company to implement Apple and Android applications, we will not talk about windows mobile because that is almost defunct.

1. Fully Native – A mobile application is written in the language of the target device.
   – For Apple, XCode, and a dedicated development team for that.
   – For Android, Android Developer Studio and again a dedicated team for that,
2. Hybrid Solution – You use the same source code HTML, JavaScript, and CSS for both Android and Apple platforms but just assemble the applications for the individual platforms.

The favored solution (or at least mine) in emerging technologies is the hybrid solution the reason for this is.

1. Business applications are not like gaming applications where the only approach may be an individually tailored application dependent upon the mobile platform.
2. Business applications generally have a specific data flow that can be replicated similarly to a website.
3. Within a company having two separate teams working on two separate technology code sets (Apple/Android) can cause a project management nightmare especially when they both need to achieve the same goal but progress at different speeds and quality.
4. The TCO (Total cost of ownership) implementing two separate product builds more than double when you consider you will require two separate development teams, two project managers, and possibly a program manager to oversee the mobile implementation process.
5. Code could possibly be re-used from existing web-based systems on a hybrid solution using HTML/JavaScript/CSS.
6. Time to live will be considerably reduced in a hybrid solution ensuring you can deliver the latest functions to your customers in a shorter space of time.
7. Bugs within your mobile applications can be resolved faster by fixing one set of code and releasing it in a timely fashion, ensuring your customer’s engagement with your mobile solution remains constant.

Different hybrid mobile solutions will be discussed in future posts, but they will revolve around some of the main options currently available such as PhoneGap/Cordova/Ionic and React Native.

Author
Ray Paul Bsc