Mobile applications account for over half of the time spent on social media and almost 90% of smartphone users spend the maximum of their browsing time on mobile apps. The development of mobile applications by different brands and websites has become very common.
Native apps are created with the support of software development programming tools for different operating systems under the guidelines of a business consulting expert. More than 1.5 million applications are present in Google’s PlayStore and Apple’s AppStore for android and iOS users respectively.
Different types of Mobile Apps
There are 2.7 billion smartphone users worldwide. Therefore, there is a huge scope in the area of mobile app development by different businesses and organizations.
Most of the app developers analyze the client’s requirements with the market scenario to determine different types of applications that can be deployed for smartphones. Some basic types of mobile apps are:
● Mobile Web Apps
These are not the original mobile applications. They are the mobile version of different websites that imparts the same look and feel as the original mobile application. They are coded in HTML programming language and they run on the browser of the smartphone.
● Native Apps
Native apps provide more reliability and high performance than mobile web apps. They are coded in Objective C and Java for the operating system of iOS and Android respectively. They are inexpensive and very easy to develop for mobile usage.
● Hybrid Mobile Apps
Hybrid mobile applications are a combination of different features of native apps and web mobile apps. They are coded in HTML programming language but they can be easily downloaded from the app stores for operating systems like Android and iOS.
Tools and Technologies for Mobile App Development
With more than 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 tablet users worldwide, mobile application development is becoming more competitive day by day. Here are popular tools and technologies used for mobile app development:
1. NodeJS
The front-end developers of mobile apps have some very important tools for making the process easier. Networked applications can be built with the help of NodeJS with its non-blocking IO feature.
There is a large ecosystem of tools and techniques which has made Learning Node a mandatory requirement for mobile app development.
2. Swift
Mobile app developers investing resources in building a transformational app for Apple users should depend on Swift. This platform is mostly advised by the business consulting expert, as it includes all the advanced features that require very minimal coding or programming.
Swift is a newly launched open-source programming language for iOS users that is also required to build apps for OS X, watchOS, and tvOS.
3. Objective C
This is one of the most traditional tools used for mobile app development. Objective C is the most common object-oriented programming language for iOS users. The different application programming interfaces (APIs) also utilize Objective C for code-based programming of mobile apps. It is less popular and flexible as compared to Swift.
4. C++
There are more than 6.3 million C++ users present worldwide. It possesses the qualities needed to develop dynamic apps for mobiles. It is the sister language for Objective C that utilizes a compiler-based approach for mobile app development.
5. JAVA
Java is an object-oriented programming language used for coding and development of mobile apps based on Android. They have many open source libraries and this language is very easy to handle.
6. HTML5
HTML programming language is used for the development of web-based apps and hybrid apps for mobiles. The mobile applications which are frontend-based can be successfully developed with the help of HTML5.
7. PHP
The most common object-oriented programming language for mobile app development is PHP. It helps create dynamic mobile apps and stable website applications. Applications that require the integration of different databases rely on this tool.
8. PhoneGap
This is a basic mobile app development framework based on CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript. The resultant app is a hybrid mobile app for Android and iOS operating systems.
9. Appcelerator Titanium
Cross-platform app development is successfully done with the technique of the Appcelerator Titanium. It is a mobile engagement platform based on JavaScript and other related applications.
10. DOM Framework
Document Object Model is also a cross-platform app development tool that utilizes XML, HTML, and XHTML for producing interactive mobile websites.
Conclusion
Mobile apps are expected to generate more than $935 billion in revenue by 2023. Therefore, there is huge pressure on mobile app developers to produce apps that can beat the competition and possess unique distinguishable features.
