The Crucial Decision: Pros and Cons of Cross App Development

When businesses were advised to develop a mobile strategy, developing apps for Android or iPhone, or Windows or BlackBerry had become the priority. With course of time, the competition has taken another level. It’s no longer enough to have on a single platform but for a myriad of target platforms. The problem is however comes in terms of development cost, time and resources.

This is when cross mobile application development frameworks like Appcelerator’s Titanium, Rhodes and PhoneGap came in to picture. The basic idea behind this is to help developers build mobile apps in dynamic programming languages and then compile them to multiple platforms. But then, there are pros and cons to taking a cross-platform approach to mobile application design and development. Let’s see what they are.

Pros of Using a Cross-Platform Framework:

1.       Reusablity: Instead of writing code for specific action or sequence for each platform- the tools let you write the code once and then reuse those bits in later projects or on other platforms.

2.       Plugins: Appcelerator and PhoneGap offer easy access to plugins and modules that can easily plug into other services or tools.

3.       Developer’s Desire: As most frameworks are dynamic or scripting languages, developers find it easy to work with. Also, these support HTML5 and CSS3 alongside the calls to more native functions.

4.       Reduced Development Costs: One of the biggest aspects is that it allows companies or brands to get an app onto other platforms without having to invest in a team or developer specific to that ecosystem.

5.       Supports Cloud Services: Beside plugins and modules they have the option to directly integrate with cloud services, including Salesforce.com, AWS, Box.net and others.

Cons of Cross-Platform Frameworks:

1.       Slower Code and Render Time: When compared to the native tools, these can sometimes be slower and any cross-compilation process has the chance to be slower.

2.       Limited High-End Graphics and 3D Support: Yes, this feature is limited but fortunately, game-centric development platforms, like Unity are here to help fill in those gaps.

3.       Less Supportive to Features of an Operating System: The framework you are using need not support the additional features to Google, Apple or Microsoft.

A good cross-platform application looks at home, doesn’t matter on what platform it is used on. How do you approach cross-platform design and development for mobile devices?