subject: Mobile Application Development- The Needs Of An Hour [print this page] Choosing Between A Web Mobile Application Development And a Native one.
Mobile apps development is a growing term and involves building application software for hand held devices. iPhone app development, Blackberry apps development, Android apps development etc are also in high demand now a days Whenever it comes to a mobile application development process the developer has to choose between web mobile apps development and native mobile application development.
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Though C# and Visual Studio tools are imperative for Windows phone, Objective C for building native iOs applications and Java is required for Blackberry and Android, the choice to build mobile applications using web standard technologies is urging developers to consider web as their preferred option. JavaScript and HTML have revolutionized the development arena.
Forrester Research submitted a January 2012 report on the subject, titled "Building Mobile Apps? Start With Web; Move to Hybrid." In this report, Forester recognizes not just two alternatives - native versus Web, but four - native, hybrid (native code with HTML and JavaScript), mobile middle ware platforms, and a straight Web technologies approach with HTML5 and JavaScript.
Jeffrey Hammond, the principal author of the Forester report, informed e Week, "I don't think there is going to be a clear winner in the native versus Web debate, but different workloads will trend toward one technology or the other. For example, I still see most customer-facing apps written in native code, but I'm also seeing a lot of B2E [business-to-employee] apps written with a hybrid style or on top of middle ware. Likewise, device-centric workloads tend toward native code, while multichannel services (e.g. social networking, content) are moving toward Web and a hybrid style."
"With the gap between native and Web shrinking dramatically, applications that share a common, Web-standards-based code base are appealing and also a very real option," said Dylan Schliemann, CEO of Site Pen and co-creator of the Dojo Toolkit JavaScript library.
"Creating apps for each native platform, as well as the desktop Web, all with disparate technologies, is not my idea of fun, especially now that we are equipped with HTML5 and open-Web technologies like Dojo Mobile, Wink Toolkit, Maqetta and PhoneGap to create extraordinary mobile application experiences. By clearly separating data from user experience, it's possible to more efficiently create applications that target the platforms of today and tomorrow."
On one side, you can get codes executed quickly with native code versus JavaScript. Nevertheless, it is less expensive to port Web apps to multiple platforms. Also, Web applications are flexible as they are easy to change and provide greater control over the content to developers.
Additionally, it is convenient to find developers skilled in Web technologies than in native code. Also, the Web-standard technologies seem less of an intellectual property risk, which opens up the risks of lawsuits, the Forrester report said.
