“Mobile app development has become the cornerstone of business success. Explore the development platforms, types of mobile applications such as native, cross-platform, hybrid, and PWA, and key stages in the process.”
The world has witnessed a dynamic shift towards a digital world with a huge customer base in every sector. All these digital elements have given rise to mobile applications. Nowadays, we have a mobile app for everything. Mobile app development processes have made everything so easy and convenient that we can get everything in just a single swipe. The ongoing digital trends have made our life easier, there is an app for every requirement. From walking to the doctor’s appointment in earlier days, now it can be done quickly in some steps using any online doctor app. Mobile app development phases have made businesses adopt mobile app development to acquire and retain the maximum customer base.
Mobile application development is a process to develop a mobile application be it Android or iOS. The mobile app development process includes different steps with a set of processing, planning, developing, prototyping, testing, and deploying software functions in a mobile app. In terms of business development, mobile applications help to raise brand recognition and influence customer interaction, and retention. With these provided opportunities business developers are keen on developing new versions of mobile apps so they can stay ahead in the market.
After getting insights into the mobile app development phases, let’s dive into the different platforms of mobile application development:
It is one of the most preferred among the community of developers due to its usability features. It also helps to develop applications for iOS, Windows, and Android devices.
Flutter is the most versatile programming language that helps developers to create user-friendly mobile applications. It uses the Dart programming langauge and is considered perfect for building applications like 2D games and other e-commerce applications.
It is an open-source platform that uses JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS, to develop user-friendly mobile applications. PhoneGap plug-in architecture makes it more mobile-friendly.
Sencha supports HTML5 code base and can be installed in different types of OS like Mac, Android, Windows, etc.
After getting the idea of different platforms that are used in stages of app development, let’s get an understanding of different types of mobile applications. Here are a few of them:
Native mobile apps are created on only one platform, that is it is native to a specific operating system. They can work without the internet and provide enhanced speed and performance.
The cross-platform creates a common code application for both iOS and Android. This mobile app development phase is a little slow but adds an abstraction layer and rendering process as required.
Hybrid mobile and cross-platform are not alike because the code is written for hybrid apps to work on different platforms. It is simple to build based only on rudimentary technical web development and technical expertise.
PWAs or Progressive web Applications are deployed via the web, and compared to other features it has limited features. The technology used in PWA are JavaScript, CSS, and Ruby.
To get started with stages of app development, you should start with planning first. A well-detailed layout will help the team to analyze the factors that help an application to build:
After getting the idea of the app started working on the research part. You should analyze the needs and requirements while developing the app. This part of developing the application includes analysis of demographic behavior, behavior patterns, and needs of customers.
Performing this stage of business your vision and mission should go beyond the app and consider the practical aspects of developing the app. While working on sketching the business model, prepare a SWOT analysis, and outline the app goals. After this start working on mobile app development phases and make primary uses to categorize them based on the behavior and location.
Clear your project requirements at the start of the project. Starting from listing all the technical requirements and listing all your needs as per project staging. Your project requirements also depend on if you want to develop a single-platform or multiple-platform app.
The major intention of prototyping is to create a rough version of the application that helps the user gain user feedback. The other methods include the testing of the app with a proper concept and a minimal viable product.
Many approaches to mobile application development and process include different stages including, planning, prototyping, designing, developing, testing, releasing, and collecting feedback. One of the most important points to consider while performing the stages of app development is including the right UI/UX components.
Being of the active process of mobile application development it involves three core stages that include, back-end services technology, application programming interfaces, and front-end development. This methodology is used for various projects as per the needs of the organization.
Testing and fixing of bugs should happen at an early stage as it gives lesser cost to the application. Testing can be done at various stages using a solid strategy that should cover all aspects of user experience and best practices of the industry.
While working on the development project, it’s important to ensure security for any application. Security breaches can happen at any time while performing the mobile app development phases. Therefore developers should work on an app that provides end-to-end encryption. Setting up a firewall, repeated testing, and regulation of assessment is important to develop an app.
From the year 2020, the market has taken over a maximum number of mobile apps. The downloads have increased with such vast numbers and turned the global business of apps by 90%. To get insight into mobile app development and its industry we have created this guide. We hope that after reading this blog you got the idea of the mobile app development process, its types, platforms, and how it is useful for business.
We have also explored some great features of the mobile application development process and its background. The stages of app development are not easy, hence it requires a lot of effort and technical expertise. Therefore it is important to give your mobile app development project to a team that holds a good technical background that makes your business upscale.