Cross Platform Mobile App Development: Engage with Your Digital First Customers

Consider the brands with which you are most familiar. You’ve probably heard of companies like Apple, Nintendo, Samsung, Amazon, Sony, and Nike. Think about how you deal with these businesses regularly.

Our encounters with brands take place on a variety of physical devices, including phones, TV, and smartwatches. These physical devices offer a plethora of digital experience options. The way you interact with these devices and their media influences become our opinion and image of these businesses.

In a competitive consumer market, brands must prioritize their ongoing modernization. Market trends and your customers are both inpatients. A single negative encounter might cost you heavily. Poorly designed mobile applications are your regular culprit.

This is why CTOs, who is in charge of managing the technology that underpins their companies' digital presence that makes their companies a brand, are seeking answers. Cross-platform mobile app development services help CTOs manage digital-first experiences for their customers across different platforms more efficiently.

The New Generation of Mobile Apps

According to Gartner, multi-experience development platforms are the next generation for mobile app development companies. It is no longer sufficient for development platforms to offer only mobile and web application development. Customers want a comprehensive experience.

Cross-platform mobile app development enables the creation of web, desktop web, and mobile apps. They must at the very least support at least one additional “experience”, which can include conversations, wearables, and AR. the quest for more consumers has resulted in the emergence of MXDPs, which as the name implies, support multiple experiences.

This sort of technology has a lengthy history, but it has recently acquired a lot of attention. Specifically, when the underlying technology aligns, this method of digital transformation provides huge brand benefits.

The critical issue during a start-up is when we can’t analyze the benefits we get from services like cross-platform mobile app development and their frameworks. Let’s understand the vision of opting for these services and how do these business benefits align with your CEO’s vision and your goal of achieving that vision.

Flutter

Flutter is regarded as the ideal framework for creating high-performance web applications. It's a cutting-edge, open-source software development kit created by Google in 2018. (SDK). Because it is a descendent of the aforementioned tech behemoth, it is almost certain that Flutter will be continually developed, and its network of supporters will increase.

React Native

As seen in the graph below, React Native is the most popular cross-platform app development framework among developers. Facebook introduced it in 2015. It's a JavaScript-based mobile framework that allows you to create natively rendered mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Vue

Vue is a popular JavaScript framework that developers use to create single-page web apps and User Interfaces. It is also known as Vue.js. Vue's great decoupling capabilities may be used by developers to construct progressive web apps. Vue is used in hundreds of businesses throughout the world.

React.js

React.js, often known as React, is an open-source JavaScript front-end framework that allows you to create interfaces fast and easily. It is not to be confused with the previously stated React Native, a native mobile app development framework.

React was created by Facebook for internal purposes (such as powering the platform's News Feed and Instagram functions), but it was open-sourced in 2013. According to the 2020 annual study conducted by Stack Overflow, it is the second most popular web framework among the developer community.

Now let’s look at the other angle of acquiring cross-platform mobile app development.   As a CTO there are many aspects you consider before onboarding any multi-experience development platform for your brand.

Expert App Devs shed light on the Top 5 Benefits of Integrating Mobile App Development Services with Cross-Platform

This Is How Expert App Devs Has Helped Various Start-Up CTOs In the Following Scenario

The software product is the pride of every IT company, and no one knows the product better than the core development team. However, there are instances when it is necessary to design a new solution outside of the product’s core technology and features.

To address this problem, the strategy of hiring niche cross-platform mobile app developers has been turning out to be result-oriented. As a leading pioneer in mobile app development, our industry experts have listed down the common challenges below that CTOs have faced to get their start-ups to deliver new ways to engage their digital-first customers.

#1. Discover When Does a Startup Turn into A Scale-Up?

There is no agreement in our circles about when the transfer for a start-up will make them pave the way towards a scaling up business. However, because the founding board members may go through hundreds of fruitless negotiations, we believe the team’s transition might occur rapidly.

At this point the management expects the product to earn meaningful money. When this happens, the management suddenly starts to demand the product to be super-scalable, super-safe, and super-fast, even though it hasn’t been necessary for the previous years for your business.

On the other hand, the CTO, will not have the room to hold engineers in check since someone needs to find out what the company's growth investors care about. This is where a CTO’s role becomes more critical. Because your business will start to identify the transition from a start-up to scaling-up, the CTOs duties start shifting from development to technological strategies.

#2. Difficulties That Scale-Up CTOs Encounter

A business-level change affects the whole IT department’s activities. When our team worked with one of our clients at an early development stage, with flexible timings, shifting priorities to experiment with new technologies. In between this led to a Seed B investor showing up in the picture, deadlines were as firm as a brick, and management began peering over our shoulder.

#3. Security Policy

Lawyers joined the stage as the company was ready to be sold to assess the technology for compliance. If the CEO prepares to quote for the firm, there must be a complete security examination. The CTO saw a 180-degree change from cross-platform mobile app development to security work that none of the executives had previously investigated. Our team spent months racing against the clock to fully categorize security protocols. It's advisable to fully categorize security protocols.

#4. Keeping Code Ownership

In a start-up to scale-up transition, copyright law becomes a contentious subject. In Westernized nations, whoever writes the codes is the only owner of the code. Without a documented transfer of ownership, cross-platform mobile app development companies may not sell or release software using the code.

Assume that there are no such documents for your system and that some of the primary developers have already departed the organization. If you as a chief technology officer is in a situation, you’ll be learning a lot during the process.

When programmers are pressed for time, they are unconcerned with copyright. As the CTO, you may find yourself in a situation where major refactoring is required to validate what you possess.

When mobile app developers are pressed for time, they are unconcerned with copyright. As the CTO, you may find yourself in a situation where major refactoring is required to validate what you possess.

Do you remember the movie “The Social Network” Facebook lost $20 million in a year-long legal dispute over the usage of source code, which Zuckerberg got and altered without permission?

#5. What Are the Top Three Pitfalls for CTOs To Avoid in A Start-Up Business?

Stop performing technical tasks on your own. CTOs are critical, direct contributors who frequently perform a lot of code themselves. If you are caught performing too much technical work, you will find yourself with insufficient time for hiring qualified mobile app developers and leadership. Set aside one-third of your time for hiring and the balance for leadership and management.

It is best to avoid building all software in-house. Too frequently, CTOs want to employ staff that is knowledgeable about every component of their tech stack. Recruit Indian cross-platform mobile app development companies that have other defined technologies and frameworks for back-end and front-end.

Finally, don’t assume you’ve found a perfect-market match. Engineering is all about the details, and you might be lacking comprehensive proof that your solution meets the most important use cases. Participate in marketing calls, review the criteria list, and validate your fit.

#6. Organizing the IT department's priorities

A scale-tech up's leaders must deal with a rapid influx of demands, which might distort their sense of priority. Many tasks will have to be declined at some time. You may be familiar with the Moscow prioritising approach.

90 per cent of the clients we know are seeing all of their desires as a must-have, and it is physically impossible to fulfil all of them. Expect to have to justify your choice in the following stage in front of management. They may not realise the team is short on space.

As your start-up reaches the scaling-up stage for revenue your CTOs must deal with a rapid influx of demands, which might distort their sense of priority. Many tasks will have to be declined at some times.

You may be familiar with the Moscow leadership approach. Given below we defined this approach in 4 pointers.

• Must Have: Non-negotiable product requirements required for teams
• Should Have:  important initiative needs that are not vital but add significant value
• Could Have: Nice to have an initiative that will have a small impact if left out
• Will Not Have: Initiatives that are not a priority for the particular time and frame

#7. Product development under corporate objectives

Following the initial seed, the creator and their workers experience a honeymoon period in which the product reigns supreme. The mindset is that anything they're doing must become a best-seller before the business can take root.

During this stage, coding methods are important, the team readily adjusts to new ideas, and design work shows through. Developers are so engrossed in the experience of working with technology that it is unusual for them to debate how the product will gain market share.

It's unusual to hear of a company with a business plan. But when that huge investor comes knocking... The CTO intercepts a loaded document titled "We need to earn paper today."

#8. When should a scale-up leader outsource development?

The primary goal has been to increase development efficiency, particularly by tapping into cheaper labor markets. Cost savings have been achieved, but only for standardized services such as internal IT.

Building teams to utilize certain AI technologies, for instance, maybe difficult and costly. Using specialist organizations to outsource the development of a certain service works effectively most of the time.

Work speed and quick access to talent are likely the two key motivators for scale-up outsourcing.

From the above understanding of how you can engage your digital-first customers through cross-platform development services, now we will take a closer look at which framework is better to choose while opting for your start-up business.

The Battle of Native Vs Cross-Platform Mobile App Development

For many years, developers have been debating the merits of native vs cross-platform mobile app development. The distinctions between these solutions is not only based on performance but also on mapping out their drawbacks and advantages.

In 2021, "Native vs Cross-platform app development" is likely the most important battle in mobile application development since "iOS vs Android." Many large corporations, like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, and Skype, have already established hybrid platforms such as React Native and Xamarin.

In most situations, these solutions have either been oversold or undersold, and many developers and business owners fail to make the right decisions. So, here’s our opinion on the native vs cross-platform mobile app development argument.

What Is The Definition Of Native Application Development?

Native application development is creating an application that is particular to a single platform (either iOS, Android, or Windows) so that the programme can fully utilise all device functions such as a camera, accelerometer, compass, GPS, contacts list, and so on. Native apps are downloaded via an app store (such as Google Play for Android or Apple's App Store for iOS).

Frameworks For Developing Native Apps Or Programming Languages

Native apps are those that operate on native platforms such as iOS, Android, or Windows. To create a Native app, an application developer will often utilise a software development kit (SDK) and an IDE (Integrated development environment) that are unique to the operating system (Android, iOS, or Windows).

The following frameworks and languages are frequently utilised in the development of native apps:

Apps for iOS
The Framework - Creating iOS apps requires developers to use the XCode framework to create apps for the iPhone or iPad.
The programming language - iOS apps are written in Objective C or Swift.

Apps for Android
The Framework - Developing Android apps necessitates the use of an IDE known as Android Studio to create apps for touch-screen devices.
The programming language - Java or Kotlin are used to create Android apps.

Let’s Understand the Advantages and Drawbacks of Cross platform

✅Cost-effective and time-saving

Unlike native programmes, the "write once, run anywhere" method lets developers use a single code base on numerous platforms, drastically reducing costs and shortening development time.

✅Simple and quick deployment

Cross-platform app developers do not need to learn several technologies before developing their apps; instead, they just need to master a handful to get started. Because no separate codebases are required, the first deployment on the target platforms is substantially faster. Furthermore, future improvements to the programme may be made at the same time rather than on each platform separately.

✅A Larger Audience Reach

Creating cross-platform apps allows you to reach a larger target audience, which might lead to more income.

✅Small Team

Because one of the required benefits of cross-platform application development is speed and agility, it is also beneficial for developers to work in small teams to complete the development process.

❎Performance flaws are one of the drawbacks of cross-platform software

Cross-platform apps, unlike native applications, do not integrate seamlessly with their target operating systems. As a result, certain apps may fail to run properly due to inconsistencies in communication between non-native code and the device's native components.

❎Problems with the user experience

Apps built with common code may fall short of providing rich user experiences. Cross-platform apps cannot fully utilise native-only capabilities while providing exceptional user experiences.

❎Speed: Slow

Because the cross-platform programme requires an additional abstraction layer and rendering process, it is slower than its native equivalent.

❎Functionality is limited

Developers may have problems accessing smartphone features like as the microphone, camera, and geolocation in ways that a native app might.

❎Limited UX

Cross-platform apps with limited UX are unable to use native UX components. As a result, it cannot provide the same UX experience as the platform.

The Pros and Cons of native vs cross-platform mobile app development for security and performance

When it makes sense to choose Native over Cross-platform: Case Study

Native vs cross-platform mobile app development is determined by the planned feature set of your app as well as the scope/timeline of the application. That being said, if your mobile app is intended to become a standalone business (as in fitness and healthcare), going native is the logical decision.

Furthermore, selecting native application frameworks over cross-platform makes sense when your app is expected to include complicated and rich-in-class features like as AR/VR, Animations, built-in games, and so on.

What To Consider Native Vs Cross-Platform Mobile App Development

Application Complexity

Cross-platform development is a fantastic choice if you're creating an app that just displays information retrieved from the network. However, if it requires extensive processing or access to low-level APIs such as Bluetooth, you should use native development.

Cost

Native Vs Cross-Platform Mobile App Development in this the native app development creates high-performance programmes, but it may be expensive to construct. Cross-platform development is an excellent alternative if you have a restricted budget to work with. You'll save between 30% and 40% since a single codebase is produced for an app that runs on both Android and iOS.

Conclusion

When considering an Indian company for your cross-platform mobile app development services, it is critical to consider the entire package on offer. All will most likely fall somewhere on the low-code to no-code spectrum.

In a word, mobile app developers allow being more productive, while no-code allows non-developers to become developers. Both low-code and no-code app development platforms have their uses, and they share numerous benefits. The ability to use technology to make things simpler for people is the main selling point for both of these items. CTOs are the largest winners in the case of mobile app development services since they receive huge benefits in addressing essential difficulties for their position.

Jignen Pandya

Vice President at Expert App Devs

Responsible for creating a sales funnel, attracting top-of-the-funnel customers, and converting the target market.