Cross Platform Mobile Application Development Naveen Danturi Pranay Mahendra

So. . . According to the Global Developer Survey ’13 conducted by Telerik, over 5000 developers said that they developed apps using HTML5 in 2012 and 90% of them plan to do so in 2013. Only 15% of developers said they would prefer to use a native-only approach.

Platforms developers are looking forward to 8% Source: KendoUI.com

Development Difficulty Blackberry and iOS are the most difficult platforms to develop for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 ranked as the easiest with Android falling in the middle.

Types of Apps being built using HTML5 The most important modern web technologies right now include forms and validation, databases and flexible layouts (grids, flexbox, etc.)

Usage Apple’s iOS is the leading mobile OS in 30 countries. Canada-83.7%, United States at 35.2%. Android accounts for more than 50% of the mobile web traffic with South Korea at 78.3% and United States at 23.3%. Blackberry is the leading mobile OS in four countries, Dominican Republic, 57.1% and United States, 32.0% Symbian is the leading mobile OS in more than 100 countries, Nokia’s Symbian-based phones are widely used in developing nations. However, it has almost no foothold in the US market.

Why Cross Platform What your app will do? Who it’s for? Where it will run? Do you maintain different and completely independent apps for each platform? Design a hybrid app with one code base? Pros and cons?

Emerging Cross Platform Frameworks

Main Features Most of them use web based languages – HTML5, javascript Performance solely depends on the language being used. Provide Backend as a Service (MBaaS) which includes cloud storage, social networking and ‘push notifications’. Support Web Services ranging from JSON, XML, SOAP, HTTP etc. These tools cannot access device specific feature like the bluetooth, NFC and other controls. Source code is typically organized in the MVC format separating data tier, application and the interface. Problem with compiling iOS Applications

Titanium Developed by Appcelerator Inc. Titanium is free and opensource Apps written in javascript Support to build Android, iOS and Blackberry Apps, trying to extend support for Windows. Interpreter for Android and BlackBerry is MozillaRhino, for iOS JavascriptCore Native experience – ‘not quite there’ Source code organization Device Specific Functionality – No built in support for Bluetooth and NFC. Web services – SOAP, XML, JSON Code maintenance MBaaS support

PhoneGap Developed by Adobe Systems Free and opensource Apps written in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript Support for Android, iOS, Blackberry, WebOS, Windows Phone, Symbian and Bada. Apache Cordova is the heart of the backend. Performance limited because of hybrid nature of the app. Source code organization No built in support for Bluetooth and NFC. No Web services support built in. Cloud Compiler

Rhodes Developed by Motorola. Native app like feel. Apps written in Ruby and recently extended for JavaScript Support to build Android, iOS, Blackberry Apps, Windows phone and Mobile. Source code organization Device Specific Functionality – No built in support for Bluetooth and NFC. Rich web service support built in. Free but not for commercial users. RhoHub is their MBaaS

Corona Developed by Corona Labs. Apps written in Lua. Free until app isn’t published. Support to build Android, iOS, NOOK and Kindle Fire Applications. Application is compiled using Lua libraries mashed with OpenGL and OpenAL. Native controls using underlying library Device Specific Functionality – No built in support for Bluetooth and NFC. Web services – HTTP,HTTPS,SOAP, JSON Cloud service is called Corona Cloud. Targeted for game developers.

Marmalade Developed by Ideaworks3d. Upfront licensing. Apps written in C++ Support to build iOS, Android, BlackBerry PlayBook OS, and bada. Binary combined with Segundo Embedded Execution Environment (S3E) All device specific functionality except Bluetooth and NFC. Web services – SOAP, XML, JSON Marmalade Juice – plan to port Objective C source code into Marmalade.

MonoCross Part of the Mono Project Built on the .NET framework. C# is used to build apps. Support to build Android and iOS. Specific platform tools – Xamarin Mono and Xamarin MonoTouch. Interpreter for Android and BlackBerry is MozillaRhino, for iOS JavascriptCore Native experience – ‘not quite there’ Source code organization Device Specific Functionality – No built in support for Bluetooth and NFC. Windows Communication Foundation– Bing Maps API

Sencha Touch Over 50 built-in components. Built-in MVC system Apps written in HML5 and CSS3. Sencha Touch 2.2 is the latest version Faster, Cheaper and highly customizable PC developers can now create iOS applications without needing a Mac.  More than 500,000 developers Rich set of documentation

jQuery Mobile Built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation Its lightweight size makes it a speed freak  JQuery Mobile 1.3.1 recently launched AJAX-powered navigation system Extensions are easy to make No established architecture Easy to debug Markup-based and is backed by a smart community

What is good about CPD? Implement a feature once and share it across platforms Using a webview might be faster than writing a native implementation for simple screens Update content without requiring a full app release by serving your pages off a server One tool to create, debug, and deploy. Speed increases and cost decreases Multiple security methods aren’t needed Simple for web developers to use

Complexity

Cons Requires a bridge for their pages to interact with native chrome and call native APIs Maintain a fork, if new functionality is added Write a little code, run it on iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile simulator. Several straightforward implementations for a single complex implementation. Harder problems are inconsistencies in platform conventions. Maybe web technology will one day be as fast as native code

What does it all boil down to?

Questions