Developing apps for mobile phones can help to increase productivity. These apps have led to an increase in tablets and smartphones in a huge way. Some companies nowadays are showing interest in their own native mobile app development.
In many firms, the development of mobile apps is the opportune way of spending money and time since the apps will help boost the employees’ productivity. These applications help users to accomplish the time-consuming and difficult business process in the shortest time possible.
Each app, however, has its limitations. Businesses will be required to invest heavily in order to come up with a native application. Here are key factors to consider when developing a mobile app:
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Features of the app
Mobile app development uses use crunch technology to write software for specific devices such as tablets and smartphones. When the app is natively developed for a device, it means that the codes are specific to the processor of that device.
The challenges associated with this kind of development are that the developers cannot reuse the code from one OS to the next. For example, the code for writing the native app on Android cannot be compatible with that of the windows phone. Browser-based apps are device agnostic; they can run on the mobile browser of various devices.
The capacity of the business
Most apps can be accessed from the app store or play store of a specific device. Most businesses, however, will opt to have an inbuilt app. Because of constraints on the back-end systems, some business processes end up taking hours to complete. An app simplifies the process alongside making the work easier. When developing these mobile apps, the firm should understand their capability and what the developer can build. You also need to decide on the specific OS that you will support in your mobile or wearable technology.
Cost
Analyze the amount of money and resources that the development process will gulp. If an app that matches what you want is in the market, consider having it and making modifications later. Developing in-house apps works best for the specific business process. Purchasing volume apps and deploying them to the users can be very cheap. Once installed, listen to the user’s feedback and decide on what to improve.
Native and web-based apps
Native apps require that the same app is built multiple times to run on multiple OSs. Companies go for these features since they maximize the device features. Developing web-based apps on JavaScript, CSSS3 and HTML 5 is cheaper and faster. The developer only needs to build one app that will run on various platforms.
One can also consider using a hybrid mobile app. This will combine the best aspects of the web-based and the native app. However, challenges are likely to crop, since no browser on mobile supports HTML5 fully. The support for hybrid apps can be spotty across devices.
To build the hybrid app, write it as an HTML5 app and then use the native device wrapper to wrap it. The HTML5 base will run inside that native app container while using the device’s browser engine. This HTML5 base is applicable to the various operating systems of a mobile, all that is needed is to re-wrap with the OS-specific wrapper.
Final words
Most vendors will have products that will automatically generate these wrappers. The hybrid apps can be HTML5 mobile web applications without the need to rewrite them.
Mobile apps have the capability of influencing business performance. Over the years, the demand for smartphones has exceeded that of laptops and desktop computers. This has led to an increase in sales of mobile apps as well as the need to develop more mobile apps.
The changes in mobile usage will alter the behavior of the users. Most businesses will also change plans, mostly by making the email be more mobile-friendly and engaging customers on social media platforms. For a successful internet marketing plan, a business will require being updated with mobile technology trends and growth. Any business that will lag behind in this mobile technology will be wiped out of the market.
