In June of 2021, Stat Counter estimated the market share of Android and iOS platforms worldwide. Android devices still provide the largest share of OS and device ownership at approximately 73% while Apple continues to hold nearly obsessive popularity among its users. Together Android and Apple own 99% of the entire global market. Today, there are more than 4.5 billion mobile phones in use around the world.
Why should your business care about these statistics? In truth, you probably don’t even need the numbers. You know just by looking around you on the streets, in the office and at home. Everyone has a smartphone, a smartwatch or a tablet. So, if your business is looking for a way to expand its visibility and its competitive stance in the market, it might be time to consider building a mobile app for consumers or for business users.
If you have decided to take on this task, you will need to choose the right approach to design and develop your mobile application. First, you need to decide whether you (or an external app developer) are going to build your app from scratch, or whether you are going to base your app on one of these pre-existing app templates. To make this choice, you will have to have a comprehensive understanding of your own business requirements, what you want to accomplish by launching this app, how you will achieve your vision and your budget. In most cases, an internal IT team does not have the cutting edge skills or knowledge required to complete this project, so your business will likely engage an IT consultant with the experience to help you choose the right platform, design, and if desired, template for your app, as well as actually develop and implement the mobile application.
Among the primary concerns for your approach will be whether to choose a native platform approach or a hybrid mobile application approach that will satisfy any and all mobile devices, screen resolutions and operating systems and ensure that you can use one code to launch, maintain and upgrade your app as the future requires.
When you talk to the developer community, you see that they are already seeing a trend toward cross-platform development and away from the native approach. Building, testing and maintaining code for two operating systems is expensive and time consuming. The hybrid mobile application approach ensures that you can sell your app across the market, no matter what type of device your users prefer. In some cases, users will have an iOS at work and an Android at home, so you’ll want to allow them to access their data and perform tasks, no matter which device they happen to be using at any given time.
Hybrid mobile applications support web technologies like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS and they provide access to native platforms as well. When you design only for a native environment, you are satisfying one operating system and using tools developed for that platform so the solution is not as flexible.
Furthermore, hybrid mobile apps allow the business to leverage developers and assure that they will have the resources they need today and tomorrow to support the app and continue its evolution. That’s because the majority of app developers today are not native app developers but rather web developers or cross-platform developers working across operating systems and devices to create a single code base.
While every business is unique, and your team should carefully evaluate its options before deciding on an approach, it is likely that the hybrid mobile app development, cross-platform mobile app approach will satisfy your needs and the needs of your consumers or business users.
Whether you decide on a cross-platform mobile application, hybrid mobile app approach, you will need a trusted IT consulting partner to help you conceive and develop your mobile application and improve results for your start-up organization. For more information about the importance of serving a broader market and user base, visit our Blog.
