If you want to conquer the mobile application market with your software product, you need to build such an app that will be both engaging and enjoyed by a wide variety of users. Creating an appealing, useful, and eye-catching mobile product is only one side of your success story. Another important aspect is the technical part — how your app runs on different mobile devices supported by a few operating systems and what cross-platform mobile development tools to choose to turn your app idea into a top application.
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For example, an app could give recommendations about the best bars nearby, and show how to get there. As an additional example, an app could help you find your car inside a huge parking using GPS.
This has boosted mobile app development. Many companies resort cross-platform app development as it provides the opportunity to deliver the services on multiple platforms from a single codebase. This way ensures cost and time efficiency and smoothes the development process. One such cross-platform app development framework - Xamarin is quite.
Mobile Roadie is an app creator that allows anyone to create and manage their own iOS or Android app. Even better, the building happens in a very visual way.
To become a leading player in the mobile app market, you need to catch on several essential things. That’s why this article is going to shed light on the most popular operating systems in the world, advantages, and disadvantages of the native and cross-platform development, and give you a list of the best cross-platform mobile development tools in 2020.Gre manhattan prep pdf.
Know Your Users — The Most Popular Operating Systems
If you want to build an app to engage a significant number of users, you need to understand what type of OS your target audience uses. According to Statсounter, a real-time web analytics service provider, iOS and Android for mobile devices are indeed the most popular operating systems for smartphones and tablets around the globe. As for 2019, Android has 75,44% market share worldwide, while iOS has 22,52%.
Below you can check the two most popular operating systems around the world — iOS and Android.
If you would like to have a strong influence on the mobile application market to the fullest, you should target both Android and iOS users. There are two reliable ways you can hit the mark — through native and cross-platform development tools.
Cross-Platform vs Native Development — Pros and Cons
Android is supported by Google, and it is an open-source OS, meaning that it can operate on various mobile phones manufactured by different companies, like Samsung, Huawei, LG, and others. iOS, for its part, is Apple’s proprietary operating system. Thus, it can be used only on the company’s devices — iPhones or iPads.
There are two popular types of mobile development — native and cross-platform, which are perfect for Android and iOS. Also, they have their advantages and disadvantages. Let’s consider them more closely.
Native development is the development of apps that have a codebase that is created to run on a specific operating system — iOS or Android (or any other). For instance, Instagram, despite looking quite similar on both OSs, is represented by two native apps with separate codebases. The applications were written separately to target the users of both operating systems.
Maximum benefits and easy access to push notifications
Ability to access a phone’s native features
With native development, you will reap some excellent benefits. You can have access to the feature set of a mobile phone, e.g., GPS, camera, speaker, and so on. Apart from that, you can easily make use of push notifications that provide apps’ owners with an opportunity to make their users more productive. You can also have push notifications on your cross-platform applications, but their creation and maintenance will cost an arm and a leg.
Besides, native apps are high-performing and fast. Despite all the benefits you get with native apps, this type of development has a set of inefficiencies which we are going to underline further.
Disadvantages:
Excessive spending on budget
Resource-consuming development
Slow delivery and launch of apps
Difficulty in support
iOS native apps can’t run on Android and vice versa. That is why to make the most out of your product, you need to have two separate codebases. This means that you will spend a large budget as you need to hire two teams. It will be time-consuming to develop and deliver your apps. Also, it will be quite a hassle to support them afterward as you will have to fix issues of two native apps instead of only one.
Cross-platform mobile development is another type of app development that allows your product to run on multiple mobile operating systems and is written in a single programming language. When the code for an app is ready, it goes through a middleware that translates it into the native APIs of iOS or Android.
Advantages:
Fast development in a short period of time
Cost-effectiveness
Reusable code
Perfect business-opportunity to engage a large share of the mobile app market
This type of mobile development will help you not to miss a chance to win a large mobile market share with an app that suits all major operating systems. You will save your money as you need only one codebase to run your app on multiple OSs. By using cross-platform development, you have a lucrative opportunity to create an app that will be appealing to Android, iOS, and other OS users without spending a lot of money.
With cross-platform development, you will have limited opportunity to a phone’s feature set as all devices have different functionality. As a result, you might deal with some issues regarding user experience, because all devices have their own functionality and platforms. Thus it makes a cross-platform mobile app less competitive compared to native apps.
If you do not want to risk user experience and want to use a phone’s native features to the fullest extent, you can go for the native app development. Nevertheless, if startups want to launch an app to grasp the broad audience, but without spending tons of money and do it in a short time, cross-platform mobile development will be the most preferred option for such companies. You do not need to build a native application if you can create a cross-platform app and deploy it on any mobile operating system. To get a more precise understanding of what is better – native or cross-platform, read our recent article about mobile app development.
How to Choose the Best Cross-Platform Mobile Development Tools
There are a lot of cross-platform mobile app development tools to choose from, and the right choice depends on your needs, requirements, and concerns. Also, one should bear in mind that tools are continually changing and updating; that is why you have to keep an eye on them all the time to pick up the best option. Here is a shortlist of factors you should consider before choosing the right cross-platform mobile development tool:
Reliability
It is always good to know what popular companies use for their apps. You can take Facebook as the benchmark.
Budget
When budget plays an essential role in the development process of a mobile app, you can go for open-source, cross-platform mobile app development tools. For example, React Native and Ionic are one of them. It would be a wise choice as startups have a lot of things to spend their money on, for instance, paying salaries to employees or renting a modern office, so you should spend your budget wisely.
Support of Tools
Pay close attention to the support of cross-platform mobile development tools. If you encounter any issue while developing your app, you can address a community to solve the problem. For instance, React Native, Ionic, Flutter have large support communities of users, and there is a readable documentation and websites to help developers with challenging projects. This means that you will be able to troubleshoot any problem
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Best Cross-Platform Mobile Development Tools
There are many tools for cross-platform software development you can consider. We conducted market research and have shortlisted a set of the best tools. We do not provide any rates, but we offer a detailed overview of each one:
React Native
Flutter
Ionic
Xamarin
PhoneGap
React Native
React Native is an open-source framework based on React, which is a perfect tool for mobile cross-platform development. It was released in 2015 by Facebook after in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg stated that hybrid apps were far behind native ones. Currently, the company utilizes React Native to built its cross-platform products. The Facebook app was the most downloadable application both for iOS and Google Play in 2018.
React Natives allows developers to create cross-platform apps that look and feel like native applications with an ability to access native features of a mobile device (camera, user location, and others). This feature makes it a perfect tool for Android, iOS, and other mobile operating systems. It enables you to create a fast and appealing application with the help of JavaScript without sacrificing user experience or fast performance. Moreover, this cross-platform mobile development tool has an extensive community of supporters around the globe and equips you with useful and clear documents to solve any issues.
Besides Facebook, there are many companies that use React Native for their cross-platform apps — Bloomberg, Skype, Tesla, Pinterest, Walmart.
Flutter
Mac icon sets. Another perfect cross-platform mobile development tool is Flutter. It is an open-source framework released by Google in 2017. Flutter creates native applications that can be supported by multiple operating systems like iOS, Android, and others. The main programming language of the framework is Dart, which provides performance increase up to 15%.
With an update in 2019, Google has added a useful feature — you will be supported when integrating Flutter into your existing iOS or Android application represented in the store.
Among Flutter followers, you can find Abbey Road Studios, Alibaba, BMW, Groupon, Google, Tencent, and others.
Ionic
Ionic is a popular cross-platform mobile development tool. It was first released in 2013. Apps based on this framework can operate on iOS and Android alike from a single codebase. With the help of Ionic, you can build really fast, high-performance, and appealing apps that will run smoothly on several OSs. In this way, the framework gives you the possibility to develop applications quickly and within a short period of time.
Ionic is an open-source framework supported by its vast and close-knit community of developers. The companies entrust their apps to Ionic are Amtrak, Burger King, Target, and others.
Xamarin
Xamarin is the cross-platform mobile development tool that you might consider when it comes to mobile app development. It’s an open-source tool powered by Microsoft since 2016. This app platform helps build apps that share a single codebase on Android, iOS, Windows, and other operating systems. Xamarin can run it not only on mobile devices but also on the web and desktop. You can create apps for Windows Phone, Android, iOS with the help of C#, which is the programming language supported by this cross-platform mobile development tool.
However, as for now, this tool is already a bit outdated. If you opt for this alternative, you might face several disadvantages. App overhead, the lack of community support, high cost for professional use as well as stability issues might discourage you from using this tool. Thus, we recommend considering other options before making the final decision on the tech stack for your project.
The companies that actively use Xamarin in their projects are Alaska Airlines, Atlantic & Pacific Business Travel Limited, FreshDirect, OLO, Insightly, and others.
PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open-source, cross-platform mobile development tool supported by Adobe. The framework will come in handy if there is no need for you to utilize the native feature set of a mobile device. It encompasses JavaScript, HTML & CSS into a container that can access API.
HealthTap, Localeur, Logitech, Nexercise, Sabre are among the companies that successfully utilize PhoneGap.
Wrapping Up
There are quite a few operating systems out there. iOS and Android are definitely among the market leaders around the globe. If In order not to sit on the fence for a long time, you’d better opt for the cross-platform development. It has many advantages like speed of development, one codebase, cost-saving, and many others. There quite a few cross-platform mobile app development tools you can choose from — Flutter, React Native, Ionic, and others. Many tools are open sources, utilized by famous companies, and have a significant number of supporting communities. Equipped with such tools, you will definitely conquer a good piece of the mobile development market.
If you are looking to create a hit cross-platform mobile app, but you have no idea where to start, you can always get in touch with LITSLINK. Our professionals have profound knowledge and the right skills in cross-platform app development services to build your app that will run on multiple operating systems. React Native, Flutter, Ionic are among those technologies that are used the most for the purpose. Moreover, LITSLINK was one of the first companies to adopt React Native, the most popular cross-platform mobile development tool developed by Facebook in 2015. You can also check our IT outsourcing case studies to see what we do for clients.
Mobile app development is the new buzz word in the arena of technology. Considering the fact that there are over 700,000 apps on Play Store as well as App store, that doesn’t come much as a surprise. With estimations suggesting that the mobile app industry would become a $35 billion industry by 2015, there’s surely no one belittling this new playground.
For some, it’s a shortcut to fame, money, and respect. While for some, it’s a means to reach millions of users worldwide. For successful app developers, it’s both.
So, if you always had an idea that you wished could be transformed into something real, something interactive, something useful, here’s your chance to develop an app. Just how every contrivance ascends from an ingenious idea; apps, too, need to be created first in your head, and then on your computer.
However, finger-flicking-good apps can’t be developed just by downloading run-of-the-mill training videos, and learning some atypical languages. Developing awesome apps goes way beyond watching tutorials and learning languages. It requires creativity, design, awareness of the market trends and most importantly- an idea.
Kicking-off with an awesome idea
To develop an app, you need to have an idea that would click among the masses. There’s no point developing mediocre apps; the app stores are already stuffed with thousands of those.
Many novices spend hours learning technicalities of different languages, only to end up developing apps which are not revered by the masses. They fail not because they are poorly designed, but because there are better alternates. For instance, there’s no point developing an online chat messenger like WhatsApp, or developing alternate mobile browsers, unless of course you are confident of outdoing the competition.
But… how exactly do you kick-off with an awesome idea?
Think of something innovative that is already on the web and can be ported to mobile. Though web and apps are two different sides of the coin, it won’t be untrue to conclude that everything that works on web, works on apps too. For instance, to simplify the news-reading experience of people, you can aggregate the popular news-sources from the web and, sort them according to keywords and develop an app that listens to their RSS feeds.
Think of an app that you always wished you could have. As they say, charity begins at home. Get your nimble neurons to work and spin up an idea that could allow you the luxury of being just a tad lazier.
Think of an app which could make complex things simpler. For instance, you need to enter your credit card number and other details every time you pay the bills. Think of an app that can securely store those details by encrypting it with a user-defined PIN.
If you’re thinking of developing a game, make sure you hire the best graphic designing talents, and provide an engaging game-play. Though we said that your ideas need to be original, you can always augment an already existing idea. For instance, though Subway Surfers has a game play congruous to Temple Run, it’s more magnetic than its counterpart. The key thing is either to be better than the best, or to be different than the rest.
Choosing the right platform
Assuming that you have finally figured out an out-of-the-box idea for your app, here’s another critical choice you would have to make. Which platform are you going to opt for you app- Android, iOS, or Windows? While the choice of platform is completely solitary, here are some tips to keep in mind if you’re still unsure on which way to go.
If you’re looking to develop an app that could yield more profits, go for iOS. Though Google has more apps on Play Store than App Store, apps on App Store grapple far more profits than Android apps. That’s due to high amount of piracy on Android platform and also due to the deep-rooted problem of fragmentation. However, on the down side, make sure you have a Mac, and are also willing to pay the mandatory $99/ year to Apple for your intrepid endeavor.
If you want to make your app more popular by offering it for FREE, and intend to earn from ads, go for Android. This is perhaps the best strategy for beginners, as paid apps have remarkably lesser downloads than free apps. Perhaps, when the app gains enough popularity, you can switch the gears.
If you wish to try something new, and have an idea which has already been adapted by hundreds of apps on the Google and Apple platform, go for Windows 8. Granted that Windows 8 is a less-explored territory, but you could reach a larger audience in a quick-time with Metro-styled apps as the discoverability of your app on Windows Marketplace would be much better than App Store or Play Store.
Design
“Design is everything”- Steve Jobs
That sums it all up. The first phase might seem frivolous to beginners, but the unspoken truth is that it’s one of the most important phases in mobile app development. It’s the phase where the bricks are laid out. The prominent reason why most apps fail to gain huge popularity in the app market is poor design. Hence, no matter which platform you’re working on, never overlook the design aspect.
Here are some tips that would help you make better and consistent looking apps.
iOS app design:
If you’re designing an app (not a game) for iPhone/ iPad, you can design your app from the readily available custom templates. These templates would help you move quickly from your prototype model to your actual app. Moreover, it would also give your app a more consistent look-and-feel. Though most developers would advise you to stick to readily available templates or Interface builder (a tool provided by Apple that allows you to build visual interfaces and comes bundled up with iOS developer program), it’s always a good practice to write codes from scratch, which can be done using the UIkit code.
Android app design:
If you’re designing an app for Android, we suggest browsing through this amazing page developed by android developer community. The page explains how an app should be designed and elements it should integrate.
Also, there’s no point reinventing the wheel again and again. Hence, Google put everything required for developing an app (stencils, sources, color swatches, and icon packs) in public domain. There’s no restriction in using the controls, features and packs. These readily available packs offered under Android developer program not only save time and effort, but also provide a consistent interface across apps.
Windows app design:
The most beautiful looking apps can be created on the Windows 8 platform. As Windows is a less-explored territory when it comes to apps, we are unsure whether you would find a readily available template for your app. However, here are some well laid-out rules for developing wonderful apps. If you wish to make apps from scratch, you would need to code the design using HTML5/ CSS3. Using HTML5/ CSS3 would be easier if you have some experience with scripting languages in the past. Here are some tutorial videos that would help you brush up your knowledge on using HTML5/ CSS3.
Registering and Downloading the required tools and SDKs
Considering that you have already chosen the platform, here’s what all you would need to start your journey. You would need to register as a developer for the platform you chose, and would have to download the corresponding SDKs. Software Developer Kits (SDKs) is a software-kit that allows developers to create apps that would run on the intended platform. Different SDKs support different devices. Hence, you would have to choose a SDK that resonates with the platform and the type of device you are targeting.
iOS:
To develop an app for iOS platform, you would need to become an official Apple developer and accept the terms and conditions. The registration is free. Once you register, you can use the same username and password for accessing you iTunes account. You would have to pay the mentioned 99$, only when you intend to publish your app.
To start developing apps for iPhone/iPad, you would need to download the relevant SDKs and tools that can be downloaded from here. You would need iOS x.0 SDK (where x represents the iOS version for the app), and XCode, which is an IDE tool for developing iOS apps. XCode can be downloaded from here.
The language that would be used for coding the apps is Objective C. Once your enroll for the iOS app development program, lots of tutorial videos, coding examples and developer libraries would be made available to you. Along with XCode, other tools like iOS Simulator that allows you to run and test your app and Interface Builder are also available.
Android:
To create an app for Android platform, you would need to register as an official Google developer and accept the terms and conditions. You would need to pay 25$/ year to be able to publish apps on Play Store.
Best Way To Develop Cross Platform App On A Macbook Pro
To start developing apps for Android, you would need to register under Android developer program, and then download Eclipse with the required Android SDK. We suggest choosing a lower versioned SDK (Android v3.0) as it would be compatible with most Android devices. However, if you wish to use the advanced API features, you may also choose the latest SDK version (Android 4.0). Apart from the SDK, you would also be able to integrate existing Google services in your app. To learn more about developing perfect Android apps, visit the official Android developer development page.
The coding would be done using JAVA code with the design interface being XML. The IDE would offer all the required tools (Interface Designer, Code Editor, Debugger, and Emulator) for complete development of apps.
Windows:
To be able to publish apps on the Windows 8 platform, you would first need to register yourself as a Windows developer. There’s no registration fee, and the SDKs and tools are available on the Windows Phone official site. There’s a publishing fee of 49$/ year to host apps on Windows Market Place. For more info on how to make apps with Windows and to understand all the nitty-gritties, click here. To develop Windows 8 apps, you would need Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 integrated with the required SDK. The back-end coding would be done in C#, while the front-end design can be achieved using HTML5/CSS3 or XAML scripting.
Download SDK | Download Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
Learning Languages
So, we have finally figured out ‘what’ we need to develop an app. Let’s now shift our focus on how to develop an app.
If you have some experience with object-oriented languages like Java, C++, etc., and script languages like HTML, CSS, etc., programming an app should not be a tough nut to crack. Here are the languages you would need to learn for developing apps on different platforms.
iOS: Objective C
Android:Java, XML
Windows: HTML5, CSS3, C#
If you have little experience with programming languages, we suggest getting brushed up with the OOPS concepts, before plunging into learning languages. Below are links of some sites and e-books that would help you in understanding the mentioned languages.
Objective C: Cocoadevcentral
Java:Introduction to Java Programming, Java: The complete reference
XML:W3Schools
HTML:HTML 5: up and running
CSS3: CSS3 for web designers
C#: C#- A beginner’s guide, C# Station
I have been learning from these online sources and find them awesome. If you’ve any more learning sources, do share it with us below in the comment section.
[Tip-off: If programming is not your strongest point, you can also create apps WITHOUT learning any programming languages. Lots of web interfaces like ibuildapp, Appyet, AppMakr,AppsGesyer and others are available that can help you create an app in just minutes, and that too, without learning any programming languages. No kidding.]
Testing your app
After you have developed your app, you would need to test the app on actual devices. Though you can always test the app in the IDE simulator, you need a reality-check when you are planning to publish your app on the app stores. Audi tt mk2 service manual free download. Besides, considering the fact that Android devices run differing flavors of Android, differ in screen sizes, and internal hardware, there’s a definite need to test your app before you publish it. The same goes with Apple devices that come in different sizes and versions. Windows phones also come in different screen sizes and hardware. There are lots of testing services like Testflight,Mobile App Testing, uTest, etc. that can help you test your app on real-life devices. These services test the integrity of your app on numerous devices, and can help you overcome any anomalies.
Submitting and Publishing your app
Now that you have tested your app on devices, you are confident that your app would run on user devices. After testing the app, you can submit the app for approval. It may take a while to get the approval as the app markets scan your app for any malicious code, and also measure the utility of the app. However, if your idea is unique and the code is immaculate, you would receive an approval from the community, and your app would be published on the App Store/ Play Store/ Market Place. To publish your app, navigate to your developer account and click on “Submit” app.
Distribution
After testing the app, you can submit your app for approval. It may take a while to get the approval as the app markets scan your app for any malicious code, and also measure the utility of the app. However, if your idea is unique and the code is immaculate, you would receive an approval from the community, and your app would be published on the App Store/ Play Store/ Market Place.
However, the journey does not end here. Once you’ve published your app, you would need to make it discoverable. This is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tasks in mobile app development program. However, here are some tips to increase the visibility of you app:
Optimize your app for keywords. If you have developed an app that lets user make money, make sure you include it in the description and title (if possible).
While taking-off, sell your app for FREE, no matter how good it is. If you wish to stick to the paid version, make a trial version of your app and market it for free.
Advertise with as many ad networks as possible. There are lot of advertising platforms that could help you fetch thousands of downloads within days.
Pay attention to the rating of your app. If people are complaining about glitches in your app, fix them with an update as soon as possible. If your app maintains a good-rating, it would surely encourage more users to try the app.
Make sure you target the right users when you publish your app. For instance, you might have designed an app for a particular screen size. So, make sure you exclude the users with larger screen sizes.
Localize the description and the content of your app to reach more users.
Now that the app has been successfully published, you would need to start thinking on which strategy to apply (Paid, Free or Freemium?) for monetizing from your app. Though the paid-option is lucrative, it would surely find lesser potential buyers. If you sell it for free, you would lose out your profits. Hence, you would need to reassess the genre of your app, and cite the competition in the market before deciding an optimum monetization strategy.
Best Way To Develop Cross Platform App On A Mac Os
However, a simpler monetizing strategy can be explained as follows:
If you’re creating a one-time play app for iOS/ Android/Windows, make it premium; if you’re developing a slowly progressive game, market it as FREE on the app stores; if you’re developing an app that can entice the users to unlock items, go for the Freemium model.
If you’re developing an app for iOS/Android, and if you think it’s productive enough, go for the paid approach.
If you’re making an app/game for iPad/Microsoft Surface, never ever think of deploying an ad-monetization model.
DO not annoy users with unrelated, buggy ads.
Grow your users through aggressive social marketing and by providing a handy feature.
The key to app monetization is realizing that people won’t mind downloading your app if they actually need it, and won’t mind paying a few bucks, if they know it’s worth it.
That being said, there’s no optimum strategy for monetizing from apps. If you’re wary of the available choices, you can adapt all the three models, and adapt the one that works the best for you. Read more about optimum app monetization on this articulated piece on Free v/s Paid approach for apps.
That’s it. Hope our tutorial helps you in creating awesome apps. ?
Have something to say? Shoot your questions in the comments section below.