Hire Mobile Application Programmers and Let Them Advise: Native vs. Hybrid Mobile App

In February of 2022, Statcounter estimated the share of the smart phone market to be 70.97% Android and 28.27% iOS. If your business is looking to build a mobile application, the decision to choose a native vs. hybrid mobile application approach, and for native apps, the decision to choose Android vs. Apple, is not as simple as choosing the manufacturer with the largest market share.

‘In order to effectively address your Mobile Application Development needs, you should engage an expert that can assess your requirements, the domain and market, make appropriate recommendations and design a mobile application that will serve your users now and in the future.’

There are many factors that go into making the project approach. In this article, we go beyond market share, to look at some of the issues a business must consider if it is to make the right decision for its users, its customers and its competitive advantage.

Native Mobile App Development –Today, the native mobile application development approach is one that is considered for a limited roll-out where the business has a user base that is using only one type of device. For example, if the application is meant for business users and the enterprise provides a device for work-related tasks, the application might be suitable for a native development approach. If your requirements lean toward a native environment and you have a choice between iOS and Android, consider that a 2020 developer survey revealed that 40% of developers preferred the Apple iOS environment while 30% preferred Android. So, if providing ample resources is an issue, you might want to consider these preferences

Leveraging the features and functionality provided by a particular operating system (OS), can ensure high performance and result in good user adoption and user satisfaction. Users can easily navigate and perform tasks on tablets and smart phones. But, if you are considering writing a native app for each of the two operating systems (OS), remember that it will cost you twice as much to build, upgrade and maintain.

Hybrid Mobile App Development (Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development) - If your business is about to begin a mobile application development project, your IT consultant or IT in-house team, will probably recommend a cross-platform mobile application development approach. This approach will ensure good return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO). Projects that use a hybrid approach are compatible with both Android and iOS devices, so user access is not restrictive. This is especially important if you are building a consumer application, since users often have more than one type of device, and if your business users have an Android device at work and an iOS personal device, they can access your app on either device.

Hybrid mobile apps have a shorter development cycle, and allow your developer team to re-use a large percentage of the code across different native platforms, so development is cost-effective. These cross-platform apps accommodate both OS environs, and allow for ease of update/upgrade and maintenance, but they do score lower when it comes to access to native functions, performance and user experience. There are plug-ins to help expand the capabilities and add functionality and these can be helpful in improving access and functionality issues.

‘The decision to choose Android vs. Apple, is not as simple as choosing the manufacturer with the largest market share.’

Whether your business is planning a mobile application for business users or for the consumer market, you will have to decide whether to design and develop your mobile app using a native approach or a hybrid mobile application approach. If you are facing this decision, you should first consider how broadly your application may be used by your target audience and decide which approach will work best for your business needs taking into consideration future upgrades and market expansion and changing user and market expectations.

In order to effectively address your Mobile Application Development needs, you should hire a Hybrid Mobile Application Programmer that can assess your requirements, the domain and market, make appropriate recommendations and design a mobile application that will serve your users now and in the future. Your project or ongoing support needs may include the need to hire Angular programmers, hire Java programmers, hire PHP programmers, hire MEAN programmers or hire .NET programmers. You can build your software team to accommodate any or all of these needs – and more!