A brief insight into the Pros and Cons for Cross Platform Mobile App Development

The world has gone mobile.

To quote Thomas Husson, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, “Mobile is becoming not only the new digital hub, but also the bridge to the physical world. That’s why mobile will affect more than just your digital operations — it will transform your entire business.”

If you wish your business operation to last in the cut-throat competition, then it is better to enter the world of mobile applications.

However, developing an app can be quite taxing. For a newbie, cross platform can prove highly beneficial and cost effective cause you need an app that can seamlessly function on multiple platforms and devices in order to reach a wider user base.

What do you mean by the term,’Cross-platform’???

Applications developed on cross-platform requires a single code base to work on multiple operating systems and function easily on several mobile devices.

There are two types of cross-platform apps:

1. Native Cross-platform apps
2. Hybrid ‘HTML’ cross-platform apps

Now let us have a proper understanding of the reasons that can influence an app developer to target this particular platform. To understand the reasons, it is important to jot down the various advantages and disadvantages involved in harnessing this platform.

List of Pros and Cons of Cross-platform mobile app development:

It is imperative to have a complete knowledge on the Pros and Cons of any new technology before adapting it in your app building strategy.

Pros of cross-platform:-

• Time saving:

Requires developing a single code to be used across multiple platforms thereby reducing the time taken to rewrite codes and platform customization.

• Cost effective:

Extra expense can be cut off by utilising the existing resources to develop the codes for once to be utilised multiple times. There is no need to employ separate set of skilled developers for other platforms or operating systems. Again, there is no need to learn platform specific development language.

• Easy update and bug fixing:

Maintenance of the applications is easy after they are developed. If a bug is realized in a common codebase, it can be fixed once and it will apply to all the other platforms or devices where the application appears.

Unit tests are required to be written only once for the common code, hence the saved budget can be used to write more thorough unit tests.

• Profit maximization:

Beside cutting costs, profit from your apps can be easily maximised through exposure across multiple platforms and several devices thereby reaching out to a much wider user base.

• Quick launching:

It is ideal for  B2B apps and business process automation apps. Time to deployment of the app is minimal enabling you to upload your application within a short span of time. Also, it leads to efficient utilization of the available resources which is more important than sleek look and feel.

Cons of cross-platform:-

• Performance delay:

Cross-platform apps have the tendency to freeze or lag since the code created fails to communicate with the device’s hardware or software functions.

The code rendering time is slow as well since it renders codes for each platform.

• Alien:

It is a fact that different application development platforms possess features divergent from one another. Hence apps programmed on shared codes often fail to integrate flawlessly into multiple platforms. There is a chance of not adapting to the previous customization made within the device. The users are left with an app that fails to take full advantage of the platform and allow proper utilization of certain features of the device.

• Restrictive tools:

It is mandatory for developers to make use of specific tools that are limited to the respective app compromising the user preference.

• Inefficient Coding:

Apps developed on this platform, not in it’s native language. Hence the efficiency of the final code depends heavily on the translation tools of the cross platforms.

Conclusion:

Any new invent is not free of drawbacks. The cross platform mobile application development provide the immediate, profitable and cost-effective solutions, fulfilling the enterprises’ urgent requirements. But the question is- Are they the most effective solutions to meet your business requirement?? This is left for you to analyze.