Well, in this era of 21st century, smartphones are considered to be one of the most common necessities. Everybody, regardless of the age group, is using a phone for almost every single task of their entire day. Starting from acting as a source of communication between humans, technology has made human talk to him now. Not only talking but creating dependability also. Living examples are Siri and Alexa. And now Google has its own talking software as well. From waking you up to remind you every detail of the day, from booking you a cab to helping you at your work. Everything is completely dependent on mobile apps nowadays. What exactly is changing to make the man so dependable on technology? The answer is the advancement in mobile applications.
Mobile applications:
By default, our mobile phones come with different applications already installed to these devices like messages application, Gmail, gallery, audio player etc. however, these applications are capable of performing only specific functions. To enjoy all the amazing features of cellular devices, users mostly install third party mobile applications to their devices.
Developers have been developing these applications for decades and each year, these applications are getting better and better. However, these mobile applications are small self-contained programs with limited and isolated functionalities. Mobile apps allow users to hand-pick according to their desires. And according to their needs, the apps function in particular and specific manner for them. This approach increases the desirability of present-day mobile apps. Although apps usually avoid multi-tasking because of limited hardware and memory resources.
Division of mobile apps:
Furthermore, there are thousands and thousands of apps to choose from. Apparently, every single one of them is capable of doing something special and specific. Starting from checking the news updates to communicating with friends and family. Looking for directions to booking our flights, cabs, hotels, tickets, food, anything you can name. Creating a social circle to maintaining the dating life. Finding the right place to eat according to your mood of playing music according to your wish. Helping to stalk your celebrity crush, we all do this to shopping and delivering it to your place.
If I am going to write every purpose then there are endless options. And there are endless applications in the market to fulfill those purposes effectively. Keeping it short, there is an application for every desire and need for a human. Some apps work alone but other corporate with tools in other media.
Mobile App Development:
People make a lot of use of their cellular devices. Therefore, having a mobile application for your business would be the best option to introduce your services and products to the public. mobile app development is very much similar to Web Application Development.
However, there is one main difference, that the mobile apps are developed specifically to reflect the common features. Because of the limited resources in terms of memory and hardware capability, you have to limit your application features to a certain range, as all of the mobile devices are of different hardware configurations.
Approaches of Installation:
Either these applications will be pre-installed like our present-day smartphones have few basic apps to work with. For Example, calculator, Google chrome, WhatsApp (in some cellular devices). Or these can also be available as web applications using server-side or client-side processing. The purpose of the latter approach is to give an “application-like experience within a web browser.
With the ever-changing dimension and measurements of screen sizes and hardware specifications, the application software developers also have to be considerate. In order to cope up with the intense competition in mobile software and changes within every merit regarding technology on the whole.
Application User Interface:
Mobile application User Interface design plays a very integral role in the creation of mobile apps. In case of mobile application development, providing our users with the best user’s experience is the main area of concern. We have to make sure the user’s ease in access and help them interact with the application in an efficient way. These user inputs are manipulated by the system and then system generates an appropriate response for the user, that also has to be displayed properly. Contexts, screen, input, and mobility of the user helps the process of outlining the design. As users are often the focus of the whole procedure.
Mobile user interface design restraining includes limits on interaction and form factors. Such as the size of the screen of the mobile device or the size of the hand of the user. Overall, the main focus is the understandable and user-friendly interface of mobile UI.
Considering limited attention of the user and minimizing keystrokes can help mobile UI perform better. Although, this functionality is working with help of mobile enterprise application platforms and integrated development environments. In addition to the front-end development tools, there are also Back-End Development Tools.
Those back-end facilities include data routing, security, authentication, working off-line, service orchestration, and authorization. These functionalities are working in accordance with the mobile app server and service-oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure.
Types of mobile apps:
At this point, living in the present world or running a business is completely impossible without using mobile apps. Some businesses are way ahead and providing facilities which are beyond expectations. While the other ones are just fulfilling the basic needs of their customers. Whatever the mindset is, it is impractical to survive with using technology.
As such, there are almost 32 categories in Google Play and 24 in Apple App store when it comes to sub-division of applications. Now you may ask what are the basic divisions? Well, there is three main division.
Native App:
A native mobile app is coded in specific programming languages, such as Java or Objective C. Actually, it is developed to use it on a particular platform or device only. When people usually hear the word “app”, unknowingly, they think about “naïve mobile app”. This a used on handheld devices with “smart” operating system. And that system is supposed to support standalone software and connection with internet is also an important aspect. In addition, users still can use some apps without an internet connection. These mobile apps provide fast performance along with a high degree of reliability.
Native mobile apps also have access to the phone’s camera, location, and address book. However, these types of applications are a little expensive to develop. Because it forces the company to create the app to make duplicate versions that work on other platforms. For Example, most video games are native mobile apps. Usually, people download these apps from the Apple app store or Android Google play store.
One mobile app can only be “native” to one type of mobile operating system. Like iOS, android, blackberry, windows phone, WebOS, Symbian, etc. if you want your app to exist in more than one operating system, you need to maintain a separate piece of software. That actually gets more expensive for those companies who are looking for more exposure.
Well, there are more options, like:
• Hybrid app
It has cross-platform compatibility. It is developed by platforms like Sencha, and Mosync.
• Dedicated web app
These are websites which are tailored to function on a mobile device with specific platform only.
• Generic mobile app
This type of mobile website works with all types of mobile phones.
Web App:
Web apps are not real applications. These are actually websites, that just look and feel like native applications. Web apps are run on a browser and typically in HTML. These are stored on remote servers and are available through the internet. Web apps help the user navigate to special URLs and then “installing” option is also available in form of a bookmark on the page.
It uses techniques such as JavaScript or HTML5 to perform functions like interaction, navigation, or customization capabilities. These apps can be run reasonably but nowadays there are many sites using HTML5. That is creating difficulty in distinguishing web apps and regular web pages.
Hybrid App:
These are like native apps and run on mobile devices. Hybrid apps are, in fact, heterogeneous sources, that is written with the same technology used for websites and mobile web implementations. And it is hosted inside a native container on the mobile device. It is a fusion of web technology and native execution. It enables access to devise capabilities as well, such as the accelerometer, camera, and storage.
Often, businesses build a hybrid app in order to get the presence in the app store without spending money on mobile app development. As it allows cross-platform development, it reduces the development cost significantly. Tools such as PhoneGap and Sencha touch with help of HTML use in making a hybrid app.
How to Develop a Mobile App?
The first thing which needs to tackle is the purpose for which you are looking forward to developing the mobile app. Do you want to enhance your business and to target the audience? Or you are a freelancer who is looking forward just to make few bucks out of it? Moving forward, the next step is to decide the domain of the application which you have in your mind.
In simple words, what kind of app do you want to create? Is it relating to games? Is cooking involve in it? Does it focus on social circle formation? Will it an education app? There are hundreds of domains to describe your app.
So, before you dive in, you think the strategies beforehand. If you are a freelancer and you are working with some small business runner. It is your skills which will decide your worth. If you have great communication skills in addition to the knowledge of the mobile app development then it will be a win for you. You can even look forward to charging them in double as consultant and developer of the application. The majority budget of businesses looking forward to app development is $250,000 to $500,000 over the next 12to 18 months. So, it is not bad at all to learn the Tools For Mobile App designers in advance. This will help you get your fair share.
Steps of mobile app development:
Coding:
Starting any project with paperwork is the right approach. Just like that, coding is the first step in mobile app development as well. If you have this aim of developing the next Snapchat or Musical.ly, the very need of the time is exact and accurate coding. And you don’t need to go to the school to learn it. In the world of internet, every kind of knowledge is available just a single click away. There are thousands of websites offering millions of videos of basic and professional level coding. All you need is a computer and a wi-fi connection to learns it. In order to save the money ahead of time, learning the basics of developing a minimum viable product is the right step.
Before jumping into practical work, it is very important to ask yourself, should I build this app? Because, just in case, after spending months on a project, the consumer market rejects it. Then there will be no option but to just bear the financial loss. Constantly conducting researches and getting customer feedback is the basic foundation of the formation process. In this way, the process will go through checking and evaluation continuously. And this will save you from a major failure.
Build
Measure
Learn
If you will follow these three steps throughout the procedure, the whole process and efforts for coding will be worth it, financially and psychologically.
Using App Developers:
If you are a business owner and looking forward to taking your set-up to next heights, it is very compulsory to indulge yourself in technology. Through this, you will not just target your customers easily but it will also bring a drastic change in sales. All you have to do is to find the perfect app builder for you, regarding the nature of your business.
The main question is, what kind of business do you have?
E-commerce
Restaurant
Entertainment
Real estate
Small business
Non-profit
And the list goes on and on. Once you have narrowed down the Best Developer For Your Mobile App, it is the time for negotiation. You will tell them your requirements and desires and after that, it will be their work to customized the procedure according to you. And by investing the right money on the right developer will help you generate long-term profitability.
Becoming a mobile app developer is much easier than it sounds, actually. If you want to work as a freelancer and own a startup company of your own, business owner looking for app builder or a business owner who can’t outsource someone else, all of you can choose from a lot of options available. Practically, everyone today is using a smartphone so they can also work on app development.
The business of Mobile App development:
Who isn’t aware of the business of apps in the 21st century? Just looking into the figures show how big this industry is now.
Google play 2,800,000
Apple App Store 2,200,000
Windows store 669,000
Amazon App store 600,000
BlackBerry World 234,500
And then there are many small stores as well.
Mobile App Development Platform:
Mainly, knowing the objectives and requirements are not going to take you very far. Having a proper platform for turning your ideas into reality is very much important. Phones, tablets, and wearables are selling like hot dogs now. And the credits go to the advancement in applications. As a result, in order to keep up with the business demands for mobile app development, programmers with the right experience and knowledge are very much significant.
A mobile app development platform acts as the podium to build the business to new heights, test and perhaps deploy mobile apps for smartphones or tablets. A business can buy the application from the third party. Or building your own is also an option. The third-party approach usually includes front-end development tools, mobile back-end as a service (BaaS), and management tools for application programming interfaces (APIs).
What to look for in a mobile app development platform?
Organizations need to go through many questions before selecting the best platform. It is just not a matter of money but the future of your business is going to depend on that application.
The best mobile app development platform will allow the developers to build, test, debug, deploy, and then maintain the app later on. And providing the choice between cloud-based, low-code, code-less or on-premises services, are also a very important factor. The mobile app development platform is also supposed to provide extensive middleware and back-end service. That will deliver key features, such as push notification, authentication, and data storage.
Examples of mobile app development platforms:
The market is overflowing with the options. Here is some example:
Kalipso studio
Appery
Bizness Apps
Apple Pie
GoodBarber
Appsmakerstore
Mobincube
Shoutem
MobileRoadie
AppInstitute
GameSalad
Swiftic
AppSheet
Snappii
Yapp
Appsmoment
AppMachine
Verivo
Never code
App yourself
Appzillon
Apple Xcode
Android studio
Kinvey
Kony
Outsystems
Telerik
Salesforce
Microsft’s Xamarin
Red Hat application platform
The list goes on.
Mobile app development software:
You can find them easily under the category of app builders, app creators, app makers, app building software, mobile development software, etc. Basically, these software assembles various features, elements, and designs into one mobile app.
Examples of mobile app development software:
Android Studio
Eclipse IDE
Net Beans IDE
X-Code etc
There are millions of software in the market. All you need to do is research to find the best according to your obligations and requirements.
Mobile app development company in the USA:
As the USA is the biggest hub in smartphone app development industry, it’s not that easy to find the best mobile app development company in the USA. After carefully analyzing and researching through different American agencies, here are few of the best mobile app development companies of USA
1. OpenXcell
2. Swenson He
3. Consagous technologies
4. Algoworks
5. indiaNIC infotech Ltd
6. Hidden Brains Infotech
7. S-PRO
8. Dogwon Media
9. Quy technology
10. RipenApps