Unified vs Native App Development

Thinking of getting an
application developed across major platforms! Budget is a problem! Think no
more, you can get the solution with the help of cross platform mobile
application development tools such as Titanium, Adobe Flash Builder and MoSync.
They offer native mobile app development which was
not the case with the earlier unified app developing tools. Some of the major
tools are as follows:

1)
Adobe
Flash Builder 4.5.1: Supports native cross-platform development for
Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS.

2)
Titanium
Studio 1.0: Provided by the company Appcelerator, it currently offers an
IDE and allows JavaScript based development of native applications for Android
and iOS. A beta version is also available that supports development for
BlackBerry.

3) MoSync 2.5: Offers an IDE for
cross-platform development with C++ for several platforms including iOS,
Android.



Every technology has its pros and
cons. Similar is the case with unified platform development tools. If they are
a boon then in some ways they are not helpful also. With its comparison with
native platform app development one can figure out the approach to make a
particular application.



Comparison of Unified & Native App Development



1) User
Interface

Many cross platform tools provide
most of the UI components for iOS & android. So if the application is made
with the help of unified tool, the app gets the look and feel of application developed
natively. But if the UI needs to be customized then the developers prefer the
native form of development as it offers a better choice of customization and
total control over handling of UI layouts and inter component navigations.




Native Mobile platform functionality - Support
and Integration

When it comes to choosing
functional features, developers can choose from a limited number of features
when working with unified platform tools and many features are not available
for these tools. As a result of this the native functional APIs which are not
supported by the cross platform development tools, the developer either needs
to wait for their availability in the upgraded version or use the native
platform.




Database and data format centric compatibility
considerations

When working on unified platform developers are restricted in using only one type of
database and language for the generation of the application.



4)
Multi platform OS layer performance
considerations

A
Cross-platform tool does not provide efficient ways to manage memory
utilization. While working on unified platforms one is restricted to focus on
the features that are common on all the mobile platforms as a result of which
configuring/editing of only those features is supported and documented while
configuring the remaining features might be supported but cannot documented. Applications
developed on cross platform are slower as compared to native apps and also
debugging capacities of many cross platform tools are limited.

If we go through the
article one thing is sure that working with cross-platform mobile development
tools does offer solution to the issues faced when it comes to developing same
application on multiple mobile platforms. Sometimes even these tools do not
have answer for the features that work specifically on the native app
developing platform. It is necessary for the company to select the development
approach based on the requirements of the project. If the project requires
little or no customization and has a fairly straightforward UI then it would be
possible to develop it using one of the cross-platform tools but if the
development involves significant customization then a cross-platform solution
may not be the best solution.


For more information visit iPhone Apps Development and

android apps development

Author: Shubhangi Verma / Posted: 29-09-2011