Talking about cross platform apps firstly tell us what’s common between Whatsapp, Angry Birds and Temple Run? Apart from being massive hits these applications are available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone & even on the dying and once dominant Symbian. As we had seen the case of Microsoft porting WP 7.5 apps to Windows 8 and vice-versa.
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Cross platform apps available on each application store are the future.
As a developer it becomes a very daunting task to code for each platform. Developing cross platform apps is even more daunting task. Earlier when only App Store was dominant it was the main priority of developers. But now Android is gaining traction world wide. And now it’s the most dominant mobile OS in the world. So apps are now being written for Android and then later on ported to iOS.
Windows Phone with WP8 is the latest entrant. Microsoft has developers interested because they would have to code only once. And the app would run seamlessly on both WP8 and Windows 8. The same is in works by Apple so that developers have to code only once and submit there apps to the App Store.
Challenges in Developing Cross Platform Apps :-
The greatest challenge in developing cross platform apps is that we have to keep in account the different system configurations and the greatest problem is the difference in resolutions between the different devices.
As can be seen in the case of App store. A developer has to make an app that can run on the now old iPhone 4, the iPhone 4s , the iPhone 5 and also the iPads and the new retina display 4th generation iPad. In case of the latest iPad the app size would explode considerably keeping in mind the high res textures required for the device’s high resolution. So the developer has to develop in a downward spiral. First for the most upscale device and then downscale it for the older devices.
The same is true for the Windows platform. There will soon be many device running the same apps in the Windows ecosystem. The need for Cross platform apps will soon skyrocket, as popular hits like Temple run, Subway Surf, Angry Birds etc. Are showing the small players how to gain market.
How the developers can benefit ?
The developers can benefit if they have the same app available in the same flavor on all the Application Stores. Because then they get a wider reach than before. An example can be of the popular image editing app Instagram which was earlier exclusive to iOS. But when later it was ported to Android. Initially users were complaining that it was no match for the iOS version. If a developer can release an app in the same GUI for all the platforms then it means a uniformity as well as a greater brand presence for their app. More platforms also indirectly means more monetization options.
Some Cross Platform Mobile application development tools :-
Corona Labs SDK. This solution is TRUE native, no HTML5 CSS3 garbage, that’s not a mobile app but rather a mobile website.
Don’t forget to build a great app its important to plan and prototype it first. Try FluidUI for fast mobile app prototyping.
Another absolutely fabulous tool is :- DHTMLx Touch.
DHTMLX Touch is a free, open source JavaScript framework for building mobile web apps for iOs, Android, and BlackBerry devices.
Canvas is a good tool for building customized Apps for replacing paper forms or other data collection tools. Check us out at http://www.gocanvas.com.
a handy tool on JqueryMobile called Codiqa that makes it really fast to build apps with jQuery Mobile. It’s also easy to just try components and grab snippets of clean jQM code.
Sencha Touch 2 is also a good cross platform apps development kit for budding developers.
Appcelerator Titanium is also a good one for Cross platform Apps development!
Challenges Ahead.
Testing cross platform apps may be more complicated. Different platforms can exhibit some different behaviors or low level bugs. This also caused developers to say that cross-platform development is
“Write Once, Debug Everywhere”.
Cross-platform execution environments are also susceptible to security flaws, thereby creating conducive environment for diffusion of cross-platform malware.
For developing cross platform apps a developer can use the already available tools on the internet. But for the real professional apps an extensive knowledge of Java is needed to code for Google’s Android platform. Knowledge of C for iOS. And .net or C# for Microsoft Windows Platform.
Have a nice day ahead developers you just stumbled upon a must know piece of information. Now that you are equipped let’s go change the world.
”ONE CODE AT A TIME.”
Stay tuned for more developer tips and tricks.
What’s your take, let us know in the comments section below.
Cross platform apps are the future. Inspire2rise Tech article of the day! © INSPIRE2RISE.COM 2013.
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It may not be much right now but Cross-platforms and specially Titanium has a bright future. This I say because Appcelerator allows developers to modify and add modules to Titanium. So the future has many flavors of Titanium coming up.
Yeah you are right Saurabh… Happy Browsing… 🙂
Thanx for your insight. Appcelerator is indeed very nice for developers!