In the highly volatile environment of mobile apps, it is a Herculean task to keep your business’s feet standing firm in the market. Even with every one in three companies going for cross-platform mobile development, the challenge does not become any smaller.
Though there are multiple development frameworks and tools available on the market, there is no “all in one” tool. And, there is no strict bracket through which companies can evaluate and choose exactly what kind of cross-platform tool to use.
So, below follows a decision framework that might help you select the right tool for your cross-platform mobile app development. Read on.
1. Company Size and the Skills of the Staff
The size of your company plays a major role in determining the cross-platform mobile development tool you should choose. Also, you would need to consider whether your staff members have the necessary expertise required for app development.
Most of the cross-platform apps are written in JavaScript or HTML, which developers in almost every company know how to use. Still, you would need to weigh the time and costs against different other factors.
Here is a quick snapshot of how different sized companies should consider the different factors when choosing a cross-platform mobile developmentcompany:
Small-Scale Enterprises (Staff < 50)
For an enterprise with limited resources, the biggest concern is development time. Obviously, you would not want to spend most of your time and resources in app development. And, what comes out to be the priority here is the turnaround time. So, you should choose a tool that can help you release your app in the least amount of time. Small businesses can also go for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools that can launch your business almost immediately.
Medium-Sized Enterprises (Staff up to 500)
Medium-sized enterprises are at a crucial stage of maintaining stability between the optimum use of the resources and customer satisfaction. In this case, you should use tools like Xamarin and Appcelerator Titanium which make it simpler for teams to build high performance apps.
Established Businesses (Staff > 500)
Being a large company, your requirements and responsibility towards the app are even bigger. Plus, security concerns and back-office customizations should be considered. For these reasons, a multi-tier approach, using native tools, works best.
2. Cost
Of course, developing a cross-platform app rather than a native app cuts down the overall costs by 50-70%. However, if cost is your biggest concern, you can reduce the costs even further within cross-platform apps. The best way to do this is to go for open source tools, for example the one which Apache Cordova offers with the HTML5 language.
3. Security
Businesses like banking and mobile wallets, which require a large number of transactions by the users, have security as the major deciding factor in app development. If security is your utmost functional requirement, it is always a good idea to build a native app and deploy it with cross-platform tools.
4. Speed of Delivery
In a highly dynamic environment, a company that quickly delivers a mobile app, with all its features across various devices, has a better chance of emerging as the winner than a company which takes too long with every update. Hence, the speed of delivery is one of the biggest factors that decide the success of a mobile app. Here, companies can use a combination of COTS tools, followed by a number of customization tools, such as PhoneGap, SAP, Sencha, and Xamarin.
Takeaway
Customer satisfaction, fierce competition, and mushrooming technologies make cross-platform app development a necessity for businesses venturing into the mobile world. However, it is even more crucial that you choose an appropriate tool for your app development to launch it smoothly. The above mentioned factors will really come in handy when choosing the right development tool for your business.
If you would like to share any more factors that contribute to choosing the right tool, leave a comment below.
