Compare and contrast seven different ways to go cross-platform

1. Compare and contrast
seven approaches to go cross platform
Cross platform
mobile apps

2. Dynamics of smartphone and
tablet market
• The landscape of mobile platform
market is ever changing
• Today Android is dominating the
world market, iOS being distinct
second and rest of the platforms
trying to reach a combined 15%
market share
• With arrival of Windows Phone OS
and other platforms such as Tizan
and Firefox OS peeping around the
corner, Blackberry is struggling for
existence, Symbian is destined to a
slow death and WebOS is doomed
already
• It can be said that market dominance
of a platform is not predictable and
certainly not permanent

3. Cross-Platform Mobile Tools

4. How to decide the platform
support
1. How important is the mobile enablement for the business?
• As support for every additional platform means cost to your company it is important to
perform a cost benefit analysis
• For businesses like weather and travel services, investment in wide range of platforms can
prove beneficial
2. What is the vision for the mobile offering?
• Activity timeframe of the mobile offering is an important factor in defining platform
support
• If you plan to launch an app to aid marketing and don’t expect to support it for long then
you may choose to support top platforms to cover most of the market
3. What are my target markets?
• Different markets follow different trends
• If your offering is focusing India you may give Windows Phone priority over iOS
• Thus is important to consider this trend in the market segmentation analysis
4. What kind of user experience is expected?
• With HTML 5 based tools very usable and responsive interfaces can be built
• Native applications have advantage when it comes to execution speed and quality of user
interface capabilities
• HTML 5 based solutions may not be able to support all the capabilities of the device

5. Xamarin
• What is Xamarin?
 Cross-platform tool that enables a developer to reuse the same
business logic for different mobile platforms
• When can we use Xamarin?
 Extensive business logic is required
 Performance cannot be compromised
 Platform specific UI with common business logic
• Pros:
 Allows reuse of Business logic over iOS, iPhone & Windows Phone
 Gives native user experience
 Provides dozens of pre-built components that can help build apps
faster
• Cons:
 Cannot reuse the UI for various platform
 High license cost

6. PhoneGap
• What is PhoneGap?
 Free and open source framework that allows you to create mobile apps
using standardized web APIs for a lot of mobile platforms
• When can we use PhoneGap?
 Common UI across all platforms is needed
 Performance is not a major concern
• Pros:
 Allows to create reusable UI design that can be shared across platforms
 It provides an API to access many of the device dependent
functionalities like Camera, GPS, etc.
 Free and open source
• Cons:
 Cannot build platform specific UI
 Performance is less than apps written in their native language

7. mGage
• What is mGage?
Mobile web development platform that allows brands and agencies
to create deploy, host and measure mobile sites that can be
dynamically rendered on most devices in the market
• When can we use mGage?
Advertising/marketing app or sites
Marketing apps that don’t need long term support
• Pros:
Allows to create a mobile campaign site that can be run on any
mobile device
Provides features to monitor user participation in the campaign
• Cons:
Not very useful for apps that involve large business logic
Performance is less than apps written in their native language

8. 5ml
• What is 5ml?
 Used to build rich media ads for mobile applications, mobile web and standard
online advertising that leverage advanced device functionality (gyroscope,
accelerometer, GPS, etc.) and unique HTML5 features as supported on each
platform
• When can we use 5ml?
 Rich advertising/marketing apps
 Need support for basic native features
• Pros:
 Allows to create rich media ads that can be run on any mobile device
 Allows access to device features like GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, etc.
 Provides simple drag & drop features. Thus reducing development effort
• Cons:
 Not very useful for apps that involve large business logic
 Performance is less than apps written in their native language

9. Moovweb
• What is Moovweb?
 Cloud-based mobile platform that empowers companies to leverage all of their
existing web investments to deliver responsive mobile experiences in a short
period
 Desktop sites get transformed, in real time, into mobile sites or apps that work
beautifully on any device, anywhere, any time
• When can we use Moovweb?
 Convert existing desktop site to mobile site
• Pros:
 Allows reuse of business logic, already in present in the desktop site, for the
mobile site
 Transforms existing UI elements to support responsive mobile design
 Delivers high performance mobile experiences
• Cons:
 Performance is less than apps written in their native language
 Cannot be used to create a separate site only for mobile

10. Adobe Air
• What is Adobe Air?
 Enables developers to use HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash software, and Action
Script to build web applications that run as standalone client applications
without the constraints of a browser
• When can we use Adobe Air?
 Mobile & desktop apps that require extensive animations
 Developing flash mobile games
• Pros:
 Extensive support for animations that can be easily achieved via Flash
 Enables developers to package code to native apps that run on most devices
• Cons:
 Does not support multi-threading
 Does not allow making native calls to the underlying operating system APIs
 Does not permit loading native libraries (e.g. DLLs / C libraries etc.)

11. JQuery Mobile
• What is JQuery Mobile?
 Unified, HTML5-based, touch-friendly web UI development framework that lets you develop highly-
branded mobile web sites or apps that work across all popular mobile device platforms.
• When can we use JQuery Mobile?
 Simple content display and data entry-type apps
 Want to build a touch friendly mobile web site for smartphones with 3G or faster
• Pros:
 The design is themable and customizable.
 No need for any knowledge of JavaScript, CSS or API.
 AJAX calls are made automatically to load dynamic content.
• Cons:
 Cannot access native device features
 Works slow on slower networks(2G)
 Still in beta version

12. Quick reference table
Area Xamarin PhoneGap mGage 5ml Moovweb Adobe Air JQuery Mobile
Supported Platform
Type
Native Apps Hybrid Apps Web Apps Web Apps Mobile Site Native Web
What can be reused? Business Logic UI & certain device dependent
logic
All All Business Logic (between
desktop & mobile)
All UI
Supported Mobile
Platforms
iOS, Android, Windows Phone &
Windows 8
iOS, Android, Blackberry,
WebOS, Windows Phone,
Symbian, Bada
Most mobile platforms Most mobile platforms All mobile platforms Most mobile platforms Most mobile platforms
Can access native device
features?
 Yes  Yes  No Partial  No  No  No
Performance  High Performance as
code is compiled into
native
Performance is less
when compared to
native apps
Performance is less
when compared to
native apps
Performance is less
when compared to
native apps
Performance is less
when compared to
native apps
 High Performance as
code is compiled into
native
 Slow
Development Speed  Very mature design tools,
faster development
Good development
toolset.
Customizations can
take more time
Fast development.
Customizations can
take more time
 Provides controls for
faster development
Fast development
Customizations can
take more time
 Provides controls for
faster development
 Fast
development
Licensing Paid (https://store.xamarin.com/) Free Basic(Free) & Premium
(http://www.fiveml.com/registr
ation.html)
Basic(Free) & Premium Free for developer
(http://www.moovweb.com/pr
oduct/pricing)
Free Free(still in Beta)
Usage Scenarios Has heavy business logic
Need good performance
Need to create platform
specific UI
Need common UI
across platforms
Performance is not a
major concern
Advertising/marketi
ng app or sites
Rich advertising/
marketing apps
Need support for
basic native features
Convert existing
desktop site to
mobile site
Apps that require
extensive animations
Flash mobile games
Simple content
display and data
entry-type apps
Need support
for maximum
mobile
platforms

13. Thank you
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