Native or Cross Platform?
When enterprise considering to embrace mobility in it’s business operation, one of the main concerns is which platform to go for or rather go for all platforms (iOS, Android & Windows Phone)?
There are 3 different approaches which is Native, Hybrid or Web app.
Let’s look at the differences of these 3 approaches:-
Native is fast and unique to each platform by itself. Costly to build. Hard to maintain as you have to maintain different version for different OS version. Direct access to phone components like GPS, Camera, Bluetooth and etc.
Hybrid is slower compared to Native. UI is not unique to the OS. Cheaper to build. Easy to maintain as the web component remained the same (HTML5/JS/CSS) but only compile the wrapper if there is a OS upgrade. Limited access to phone components.
Web App is about the same speed with Hybrid but only runs on Internet Browser. So practically you can run on anywhere. Not OS dependant. Cheapest to build and easiest to maintain. For app upgrade, only need to do once on server. Restricted access to phone components.
So now the question is when to use the right approach?
For enterprises which wants to have a marketing purpose app towards it’s consumer base customers, Hybrid & Web App is the most cost effective way to go. It serves the purpose when the speed of the app is not the deal breaker.
However, for applications more towards to B2B, it is wise to use Native app as the speed is critical. For example, sales person who needs to move around to meet customers and delivering stocks, speed is crucial to them as their customers do not have the luxury to wait for them patiently on sales process.
Please let us know if your company is deciding on which approaches to go because we are glad to share with you on the pros and cons.