DZResearch_2014MobileDevelopmentGuide_4

2 0 1 4 G U I D E T O M O B I L E D E V E L O P M E N T

1dzone.com/research/mobile | dzone.com | [email protected] | (919) 678-0300

D Z O N E R E S E A R C H P R E S E N T S

2 0 1 4 GU I D E TO

MOBILEDEVELOPMENTTOOLS, STRATEGIES, AND INSIGHTS FOR

ACCELERATING MOBILE DEVELOPMENT

BROUGHT TO YOU I N PARTNERSH I P W I TH

2 2 0 1 4 G U I D E T O M O B I L E D E V E L O P M E N T

dzone.com/research/mobile

Welcome

Dear Reader,

This is the third guide weve produced in the DZone Research series this year and weve been excited by your response to the first two. It is clear that many of you are anxious for resources to help create high-quality products and services, and your feedback thus far has been immensely helpful in shaping the direction of these guides.

For this guide, we heard from over 1,000 of you and learned a ton about the ways you are developing for mobile. With your insights, we were able to put together a strong portrait of the mobile development landscape and unveil many perspectives. As you read this guide, we hope that you will discover some new things that will help accelerate your development, from best-practices to new tools.

As always, thanks to everybody who played a part in the creation of this guide, including those of you who took the time to complete our survey, the experts who shared their knowledge, the vendors who helped us understand their products, as well as our research partners.

Enjoy the guide and happy developing!

Jayashree GopalakrishnanDirector of [email protected]

TABle oF coNTeNTS

Summary & Key TaKeawayS

Key reSearCH FINDINGS

THe mobIle laNDSCape: CroSS-plaTForm problemS aND SoluTIoNS By ALec NoLLer

THe STaTe oF NaTIve vS. web vS. HybrIDBy Mitch ProNschiNske

baCK-eND INTeGraTIoN: a major HeaDaCHe For eNTerprISe mobIlITyBy suhAs uLiyAr

Game oF pHoNeS INFoGrapHIC

mobIle uX: reFINING perCeIveD perFormaNCe By ANdrew trice

THe STep-by-STep mobIle DevelopmeNT CHeCKlIST

SoluTIoNS DIreCTory

GloSSary

cReDITS

DZoNe ReSeARchJayashree GopalakrishnanDIreCTor oF reSearCH

Mitch pronschinske SeNIor reSearCH aNalyST, auTHor

Matt Werner marKeT reSearCHer

alec nollerCoNTeNT CuraTor, auTHor

BenJaMin BallreSearCH aNalyST

Special thanks to our topic experts Alex Curylo, Pieter De Rycke, Raymond Camden, Max Katz, Jose Roy Javelosa, and our trusted DZone Most Valuable Bloggers for all their help and feedback in making this guide.

DZoNe coRpoRATerick rossCeo

Matt schMidtpreSIDeNT & CTo

Brandon nokesvp, operaTIoNS

alex craftsSeNIor aCCouNT maNaGer

hernni cerqueiraleaD SoFTware eNGINeer

kellet atkinson DIreCTor oF marKeTING

ashley slateGrapHIC DeSIGNer

chris sMithmarKeTING aSSoCIaTe

4

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SummARy & Key TAKeAWAySEntering todays mobile space requires significant decisions about the development technology you want to use. Will your apps

be native, web-based, or will you choose from a variety of cross-platform tools to make something in between? If you develop

native apps, will you build for both Android and iOS? These decisions are often made without adequate knowledge of industry

trends and relevant data. The DZone 2014 Guide to Mobile Development gives readers a full picture of the various approaches to

mobile development, enabling them to overcome its biggest obstacles. Exploring the data and content in this guide and on its

companion site dzone.com/research/mobile will help you understand:

The challenges of cross-platform mobile development and strategies for overcoming them

The strengths and weaknesses of native, hybrid, and web-based approaches to mobile development

Mobile development trends and preferences from a survey of more than 1,000 mobile professionals

Feature comparisons between various Mobile Application Development Platforms (MADPs)

Strategies for mobile user experience design and enterprise integration

K e y TA K e AWAy SA Web or Hybrid App is Becoming the Preferred Enterprise AppAs enterprises start to build more B2E apps, they are likely to turn to web and hybrid apps, or use

MADPs that generate native apps from a common codebase. Our mobile development survey found

that the organizations building web and hybrid apps are making more enterprise apps than the overall

pool of respondents. The organizations that are exclusively focused on enterprise apps are also using

web technologies 15% more than Java, which is the second most common language for that group.

The lower cost of maintaining a single codebase is driving a surge of web and hybrid apps in the

enterprise world.

Many Developers are Turning to Cross-Platform ToolsCross-platform tools are being used by 41% of the mobile developers surveyed, and it is the

most popular tooling group among a long list of common mobile utilities. This finding is further

emphasized by the two most common pain points among the mobile developers surveyed: testing

efficiently on multiple devices (53%) and building native apps for multiple platforms (50%). MADPs

are certainly not the only answer to these challenges, but the platforms compared in our solutions

directory are worth investigating.

The Majority of Mobile Customers are Still ExternalAmong the mobile developers surveyed, 60% said they are developing for

consumers and 54% are developing for businesses outside their own. This

indicates that customer experience should be the key concern for todays

mobile developers, and that performance must feel native. The enterprise

app space is growing, but only 30% of respondents said their organization is

developing them.

Commissioned Apps and Marketing Through Apps are Primary Revenue SourcesMost companies are making money by building commissioned apps or by

marketing products through a mobile app. The expected revenue source for

mobile apps is correlated to the size of the organization. The most common

target revenue source for organizations larger than 99 employees is revenue from

marketing and brand awareness for another product, while organizations under

100 employees cite commissioned apps as their most common revenue generator.



Key ReseaRch Findings

DZone surveyed over 1,000 IT professionals with some involvement in mobile technology for the 2014 Guide to Mobile Development, providing key information on mobile monetization, tool usage, production levels, and platform prioritization. The largest demographic segments are developers (39%) and development team leads (29%). 53% of respondents come from small organizations (under 100 employees) and 47% come from large organizations (100 or more employees). The majority of respondents are headquartered in the US (36%) or Europe (36%).

moRe moBIle hoBByISTS AND employeeS ThAN FReelANceRSOver half (51%) of those surveyed work in an organization that develops mobile apps and 48% of all

respondents have participated in their organizations mobile efforts. Outsourcing is relatively unpopular,

with only 14% saying their organization outsources mobile development efforts. 37% of respondents

have developed mobile apps as a freelancer, showing that fewer developers choose to strike out on

their own when building mobile apps. However, 56% have built mobile applications as hobby projects,

and 30% of the overall respondents dont expect any return on investment from their apps.

ANDRoID AND WeB SKIllS moRe commoN ThAN IoS SKIllSAndroid has the largest percentage of organizations and individual respondents

targeting the platform with 84%. iOS is a close second with 70%. 56% of

respondents say they are developing for web or hybrid, and Windows Phone

has a strong showing with 24%. When respondents were asked which platforms

they personally have helped build applications for, Android has a larger lead

with 71% and web/hybrid takes second place with 50%. 47% of the respondents

have built iOS apps and 17% have built Windows Phone apps. Android has a

large set of developers in this survey most likely because its platform language,

Java, is already ubiquitous in the software industry. Web skills, along with Java

skills, are much more common than Objective-C skills, which are not often

used outside of iOS development. One of the more interesting statistics is that,

among large organizations, 14% more organizations are targeting iOS compared

to small organizations.

The leADeRS ARe BuSINeSS AND uTIlITy AppSThe top five types of apps that respondents and their organizations are working on include Productivity, Finance, and Business (63%), Tools and

Utilities (39%), Social Networking and Communications (20%), Travel, Maps, and Navigation (17%), and News, Media, and Weather (16%). For

hobbyists, Tools and Utilities is the most common type (55%), and for freelancers, its between Productivity, Finance, and Business (53%) and Tools

and Utilities (46%). Hobbyists are also much more interested in developing games (27%) or entertainment apps (16%) than other developers.



cRoSS-plATFoRm DevelopmeNT AND TeSTINg ARe The BIggeST pAIN poINTSThe most common mobile development pain points for respondents centered

around multi-platform development and testing. Testing efficiently on many

different hardware sets and screen sizes is the biggest pain point for respondents

(53%), while building native apps for multiple platforms (50%) is a close second.

The third most common pain point is a lack of skilled mobile developers (40%).

Respondents from large organizations were 10% more likely than those from

small organizations to experience pain points around integrating with existing

in-house apps, lack of skilled mobile developers, and security.

commoN TImelINe FoR moBIle App DevelopmeNT IS 1-3 moNThSApp development time can vary widely based on a host of factors, but finding out how

much time it generally takes organizations and individuals to develop apps is useful for

discovering industry opinions about how long an app should take to complete or how large

a project should be. The top three answers for organizations were 12 weeks (14%), 8 weeks

(13%), and 4 weeks (10%). For individuals working by themselves, their timetables gravitate

toward 4 weeks (15%) with 12 and 8 weeks (both 12%) close behind. As for the number

of apps completed per year, the chart to the left shows statistics for the number of apps

organizations are churning out.

cRoSS-plATFoRm ToolS ARe uSeD By NeARly hAlF oF moBIle DevS41% of respondents say they or their organizations are using cross-platform tools such as

Apache Cordova/PhoneGap. This is the most popular type of mobile tool, with IaaS/PaaS as

the second most crucial development utility at 20% usage. For programming languages, Java

is very popular in this group of enterprise developers (73%), but web languages appear to be

the most common skillset (80%). Objective-C for iOS is third with 45%, and C#, the language

of Windows Phone, is fourth with 25%. The mobile usage percentages for the rest of the

programming languages can be seen in the chart to the right.

commISSIoNeD AppS AND pRoDucT mARKeTINg ARe The moBIle BReADWINNeRSCommissioned apps (37%) are the number one overall source of expected mobile app

monetization. Marketing and brand awareness for another product (26%) and app store

purchases (25%) are the other two major sources. For small organizations, commissioned apps (43%) are still the most common expected

revenue source, but app store purchases are in second place (31%) and product marketing is in third (21%). This is probably due to the small

amount of employees needed to build an app-based business or a mobile development-for-hire shop. For large organizations, marketing for

another product is the most common expected revenue source (32%). Commissioned apps are second (28%) and app store purchases are

third (18%). Many larger organizations come with larger products, so often their focus is on moving leads through a sales pipeline toward more

valuable, non-mobile product purchases.

What are your organizations pAIN poINTS for mobile application development?

1 TeSTINg oN mulTIple DevIceS2 BuIlDINg NATIve AppS FoR mulTIple

plATFoRmS

3 lAcK oF SKIlleD moBIle DevelopeRS



Mobile development has become a ubiquitous part of the software industry, and most developers understand the central dilemma organizations face when building a mobile app: cross-platform development. What options exist for deploying an app to multiple platforms simultaneously? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each platform?

The backbone of mobile development is the native application, but there are a growing number of alternatives: web apps provide a browser-based solution, hybrid apps leverage web development skills in a native package, and code translators apply one platforms native development skillset to the codebase of another. However, the differences can be subtle, and every option carries its own set of drawbacks.

NATIvE DEvElOPMENTNative applications are built from the ground up for a specific platform and tailored to fit it. The precise, platform-centered nature of native development means that these apps have no limits in terms of access to APIs and device features, performance optimization, and platform-specific best practices for user interface design. Ideally, every mobile app would be built this way: to suit its exact purpose while utilizing all of the available resources.

native application developMent

ANDRoID IoS WINDoWS phoNe

language: Java

Primary IDE: Eclipse or Android Studio

language: Objective-C

Primary IDE: XCode

language: C#

Primary IDE: Visual Studio

One of the major benefits of native mobile development is the availability of resources. For example, developers targeting Android have the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) at their disposal, which includes a suite of tools to streamline the development process: the SDK Manager condenses updates and tool installations into a single menu, the AVD Manager provides access to the Android Emulator and other virtual devices, and the Dalvik Debug Monitor Server (DDMS) is a powerful debugging tool, just to name a few. iOS and Windows Phone developers have similar toolsets available in their SDKs, covering everything from the UI and device feature tools of Cocoa Touch in the iOS SDK to the real world testing conditions of the Simulation Dashboard for Windows Phone 8. These toolsets make native SDKs invaluable and thorough resources.

Unfortunately, the native SDKs are all robust toolsets that a native developer has to learn for each platform. To develop native apps from scratch (rather than through an intermediate tool), developers

must be skilled with the required language, IDE, and development tools for each targeted platform, and if developers with diverse skillsets are not available, additional developers must be hired. This can be a serious problem, given the increasing push to develop on multiple platforms. For example, according to DZones 2014 Mobile Developer Survey, 62% of respondents targeted both Android and iOS. The economic constraints of native development are a major factor in the growing popularity of web apps, hybrid apps, code translators, and Mobile Application Development Platforms (MADPs), which allow developers to reach multiple platforms with just one tooling ecosystem.

WEB APPSThe skillset for building a basic mobile web app is more common than that of native development. Essentially, mobile web apps are just regular websites optimized to look good and function well on mobile devices, and they can provide a quality app-like experience if the developer is very skilled in web technologies. Widely understood front-end web development languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript provide the logic behind a web app, and there are plenty of tools and libraries out there to help web developers direct their skills toward mobile devices. jQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch are two examples of mobile web frameworks that provide UI components and logic for sliders, swipes, and other touch-activated controls that are common to native mobile applications.

The community around open source web technologies is another key difference between native and web development. Web technologies like Node.js and AngularJS are some of the most popular projects in the open source community according to

GitHub statistics [1]. This suggests that the community support and knowledge base around web technologies is broader than native technologies.

In addition to being a more common skill set, mobile web development can also solve a fundamental issue with native application development. Aside from possible browser compatibility issues, web apps present a near-universal cross-platform option. Most APIs and hardware features will not be accessible by web apps, and because they are not discrete applications in the same way that native apps are, web apps cannot be distributed through common means, such as Apples App Store and Googles Android Marketplace. Web apps may be a particularly flexible option, but they lack a presence on fundamental mobile distribution channels.

HYBRID APPSMany of the drawbacks for web apps are alleviated by another cross-platform option built on the same core web development skillset: the hybrid app. Like web apps, hybrid apps require web development skills, but unlike web apps, they include some native features to allow greater flexibility. It gets the name hybrid because it is built with web languages and technologies at its core.

The mobile landscape:cRoss-plaTFoRm pRoblems and soluTions

by alec noller



With the help of a native packaging tool, it can be deployed just like a native app and access more native device capabilities (device APIs) than a pure web application.

A hybrid app is created by first coding the application to run in the devices native webview, which is basically a stripped-down version of the browser. For iOS this view is called UIWebView, while on Android its called WebView. This view can present the HTML and JavaScript files in a full-screen format, and pure web apps can achieve this full-screen view as well. WebKit is the most commonly targeted browser rendering engine because it is used on iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Where a web app really starts to become a hybrid app is when the app is placed inside of a native wrapper, which packages the hybrid app as a discrete application and makes it viable for app store distribution. In addition to the native wrapper, a native bridge allows the app to communicate with device APIs, such as alarm settings, accelerometers, and cameras. The native bridge is an abstraction layer that exposes the device APIs to the hybrid app as a JavaScript API. This is one feature that clearly separates hybrid and pure web apps, because web apps are unable to pass through the security structures between the browser and native device APIs. Access to many of the hardware features on mobile devices makes hybrid apps feel more like native apps than web apps from the user perspective.

MADPS AND CODE TRANSlATORSSome tools can go even further in terms of taking a single codebase and deploying it on multiple mobile platforms. MADPs are development tools, sometimes including a mobile middleware server, that build hybrid or native apps for each platform using one codebase. Some MADPs, such as Appcelerators Titanium and Trigger.io, can take advantage of native elements where native is necessary or higher performing. UI widgets may be native, for instance, while a more flexible JavaScript API condenses the universal parts of mobile development and maximizes code reuse. As more native elements are introduced, some of the drawbacks of native development reappear, such as the costly need for multiple

skillsets. MADPs are most useful in scenarios where an application needs to work with many back-end data sources, many other mobile apps, or many operating systems [3].

A less comprehensive but more straightforward solution is to use code translators when building native apps for multiple operating systems. These tools take native code and translate it into another platforms native code, or translate native code into a neutral low-level alternative, such as bytecode. One example is Googles J2ObjC, which translates Java classes into their Objective-C equivalents, alleviating a lot the initial development of an iOS version of the app. Although its much more than a code translator, a product called Xamarin does something similar by allowing developers working with C# and .NET in Visual Studio to produce a native ARM executable. They can then take advantage of ahead-of-time (AOT) or just-in-time (JIT) compilation to run their apps on iOS and Android in addition to Windows Phone [3].

As is the case with hybrid apps, the UI presents a problem. Because UI development cannot be translated between platforms, code translators still require significant knowledge of the native platform to write the UI. In other words, code translators can provide substantial benefits in terms of cutting down development time, but theyre not necessarily a write once, run anywhere solution.

NO SIlvER BUllETSBetween native apps, web apps, hybrid apps, and the growing number of MADPs, there are a lot of options for mobile development. Its important to note that there is no one solution that does everything. Some sacrifice affordability and accessibility for pure native performance, UI for easy cross-platform deployment, or ease of development for native authenticity. Even the simplest tools come with some degree of a learning curve. If a method with no trade-offs existed, the industry would adopt it en masse, and you would know about it.

Because there are trade-offs, developers and decision-makers will have to recognize their needs, and the needs of their users, in order to determine the best way to approach mobile development.

[1] https://github.com/search?o=desc&q=stars%3a%3E1&s=forks&type=Repositories[2] http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/slide03-v5.png[3] http://www.kony.com/resources/glossary/mobile-application-development-platform-madp-0

Ideally, every mobile app would be built this way: to suit its exact purpose while utilizing all

of the available resources.

W R I T T E N B Y

Alec NollerAlec Noller is the Senior Content Curator and leader of the Mobile Zone at DZone. When hes not creating and curating content for DZone, he spends his time writing and developing Java and Android applications.

Inspired by Trigger.io [2]

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There is a critical need to deliver apps that

are optimized for web and mobile devices.

As a result, many developers are living by

the motto of web is not enough when

developing enterprise applications. When

developing applications that span web and

mobile, you should think about designing

apps specifically for each device, how youll

connect and integrate backend data, and

how youll deploy and manage the apps.

coNSIDeRATIoNS WheN DevelopINg cRoSS-plATFoRm AppSDo you standardize on a single platform or

use different approaches for each device?

One way to avoid this question is to choose

a solution that allows you to build and

deploy apps on any environment, using a

single development approach. To deliver

apps fast and save crucial development

resources, you need to build device-specific

apps without writing device-specific code.

BeNeFITS oF uSINg A SINgle plATFoRm While organizations are turning to

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to assemble,

deploy, and manage applications they

need to carefully consider support for

mobile. It is important to select a PaaS that

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environments all from a single development code.

Visit www.progress.com/dzonemobile and take a trial today.

2014 Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affi liates. All rights reserved.

Additional information in the vendor profile section of the guide

W R I T T e N B y

Mark TroesterSenior Director of Pacific Product Management and Solution Marketing, Progress

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dzone.com/r/ xsyWAdditional information in the vendor profile section of the guide

cATegoRymADp

WebHybridNative

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -moBIle mIDDleWARe- -uSAge ANAlyTIcS- -peRFoRmANce ANAlyTIcS-- -ReST + SoAp-



A continuing question in mobile development is whether its

more beneficial to build applications that are written directly for

a native platform or to build applications on web languages and

technologies. When tools like PhoneGap emerged, a third hybrid

option became available that could use native code in conjunction

with web languages to gain a set of attributes that no native or web

apps have. Today, there are also Mobile Application Development

Platforms (MADPs) that can generate largely native apps from a

single original codebase, which does not have to be written in web

languages.

MADPs are compared on a tool-by-tool basis on DZones mobile

research portal (http://dzone.com/research/mobile). For native,

hybrid, and web applications, this article will serve as a comparison

between the three mobile app types. In addition to the comparison

information, youll also get a snapshot of the industry use cases and

current trends around native, web, and hybrid apps.

COST Native apps often cost more to develop and distribute because of

the distinct language and tooling ecosystems, which require more

investment in developer skills if you need to develop for more than

one platform. However, cost is dependent on many other factors

as well, so native apps wont be the most expensive option in every

case. Building an excellent mobile web app also requires a high

degree of developer expertise, so no matter which type of app you

build, quality will always be expensive.

TESTABIlITYMature and predictable native platforms with proven tools tend to

make testing easier than the frameworks that create hybrid apps

using JavaScript-to-native communication. Web app testing can

also be a struggle if the developer isnt skilled and knowledgeable

about the JavaScript ecosystem. Native app testing becomes

increasingly difficult if you maintain multiple codebases and

support a large number of devices.

CODE REUSABIlITY/PORTABIlITYPerhaps the biggest weakness of native apps is their lack of

portability to other platforms. The appeal of web apps is that you

can have one codebase and run it on any major mobile platform.

The appeal of hybrid apps is similar, because you are able to reuse a

large amount of code for each platform. However, web apps arent

100% portable. Newer web standards arent always supported by

the browsers on every device, so even web developers have to

worry about compatibility issues [1]. It should also be noted that

native app webviews are not the same as device browsers, and

therefore have their own fragmentation issues.

DEvICE ACCESSAlthough web apps can access some basic mobile device APIs, like

the GPS for geolocation apps, they still have very limited hardware

access. They dont have support for Digital Rights Management

(DRM), which is needed for many multimedia services, they cant

harness background processing, and they cant use secure storage

outside of applications. There are some new standards currently

being drafted by the W3C that will give web apps a few more

capabilities for accessing device APIs, but for the next few years,

hybrid apps and native apps will provide significantly more access

to device APIs. Hybrid app frameworks have made a lot of progress

getting access to most of the low level features, like the gyroscope

and accelerometer.

UI CONSISTENCYMobile web UI frameworks help web and hybrid apps build native-

looking UI components, but differences still remain. The frameworks

also have to stay up to date with major platform design updates

like iOS 7. In iOS, a web or hybrid UI is especially apparent, because

when UIWebView is used, the bitmap compositing does not happen

in the hardware like it would for a native app. Subtle features

like the bouncing effect at the bottom of a page on iOS cant be

completely recreated in JavaScript. Thats why the developers who

built forecast.io (a web app that rivals native UX) recommend that

NATIve hyBRID WeB

coST Commonly the highest of the three choices if developing for multiple platformsSimilar to pure web costs, but extra skills are

required for hybrid toolsLowest cost due to single codebase and common

skillset

coDe ReuSABIlITy/poRTABIlITy

Code for one platform only works for that platform

Most hybrid tools will enable portability of a single codebase to the major mobile platforms

Browser compatibility and performance are the only concerns

DevIce AcceSS Platform SDK enables access to all device APIs Many device APIs closed to web apps can be accessed, depending on the toolOnly a few device APIs like geolocation can be

accessed, but the number is growing

uI coNSISTeNcy Platform comes with familiar, original UI components UI frameworks can achieve a fairly native look UI frameworks can achieve a fairly native look

DISTRIBuTIoN App stores provide marketing benefits, but also have requirements and restrictionsApp stores provide marketing benefits, but also

have requirements and restrictionsNo restrictions to launch, but there are no app

store benefits

peRFoRmANce Native code has direct access to platform functionality, resulting in better performanceFor complex apps, the abstraction layers often

prevent nativelike performancePerformance is based on browser and network

connection

moNeTIZATIoN More monetization opportunities, but stores take a percentageMore monetization opportunities, but stores

take a percentageNo store commissions or setup costs, but there

are few monetization methods

the state of NATIve vs. WeB vs. hyBRIDby mitch pronschinske

NATIve vs. WeB vs. hyBRID: 7 FAcToRS oF compARISoN coN pRo NeuTRAlKey



you build an original UI for web apps, rather than trying to recreate

the native UI and having your app look wrong to users [2].

SEO This may not be the fairest criterion for native applications, but if you

want the textual and semantic content of your app to be found and

ranked by search engines, your app has to have a web component. A

web component is required because apps are closed environments,

and search engines cannot access that information.

DISTRIBUTIONWith app stores, native and hybrid apps are able to harness marketing

tools such as rankings and featured placement all in a well-maintained

system. Web apps, by contrast, dont have to fulfill any app store

requirements, and they are accessible through any compatible

browser. The disadvantages for native and hybrid apps are the

app store requirements and content restrictions. For web apps, the

downsides are that you dont get the marketing benefits of an app

store. Web apps also have to be manually bookmarked if the user

wants a shortcut on their homescreen.

PERFORMANCENative code will always be the most straightforward path to the

snappiest performance. Hybrid app performance can be strong,

but will sometimes suffer depending on how the tools build code to

interface with the native OS. Web apps can have strong performance

as well, if you have skilled web developers and use modern standards

like appcache. Web and hybrid performance will also improve as

mobile browsers get faster JavaScript engines. Other things that

can help mobile web performance include using WebKits overflow

scrolling to create scrolling divs, using tools like FastClick to speed up

hyperlinks, and only animating GPU-accelerated properties [3].

DEPlOYMENT/UPDATESIf app updates arent automatic, they can be a real annoyance to

the user. A huge advantage for web apps is that you can deploy

them like any other desktop website. Hybrid apps can make some

updates through the web without app store approval, but hybrid apps

and native apps still have to jump through the hoops of app store

approval, and they need to download any updates from the app store.

MONETIzATIONFor web apps, you can make money through advertisements,

subscriptions, or an app store for web apps, though the vast majority

of app downloads still happen in the native platform stores. Native

and hybrid apps have more options for monetization, including in-app

purchases, platform-native ads, and the app purchase itself. However,

to be in the high-profile native app stores, you need to hand over a

percentage of your app download revenue to the company that owns

the store (usually around 30%). There is also an initial fee to develop

for the platform and deploy on the app store.

NATIvE vS. WEB vS. HYBRID: THE TRENDSWhen looking at the trends in the native vs. web vs. hybrid

conversation, it cant be denied that native apps are heavily favored

by consumers. A recent survey by Flurry, a mobile analytics company,

found that mobile users in the US spend 86% of their time using

native or hybrid apps [4]. That number is still 54% even if you filter

out gaming apps. Comparatively, 14% of their time is spent in the

browser using mobile websites. This is a pretty good indication that

an app-like experience, whether its through native or hybrid code, is

the preferred mode of consumer interaction.

If thats not enough evidence, you just need to look at the most

popular mobile apps right now and youll find that most of them are

native. Facebook and LinkedIn both tried to build hybrid apps for

accessing their websites, but they found that the experience and

performance werent up to their standards, so they built native apps

for all of the major platforms [5]. However, those companies can

certainly afford to have many developers with the skillsets to build on

those platforms.

An area where

web and hybrid

app development

is becoming more

common is in the

enterprise. The need

for business-to-

employee apps (B2E)

is expected to grow

exponentially over the

next few years, and

most companies will

not want to build and

maintain two or more

codebases for every

app. Another option

for these enterprises is

using MADPs, which were described in the introduction. The expected

growth of B2E apps has led some analysts to recommend choosing

hybrid apps or MADPs for large scale internal app development, while

building native apps for external customers with high performance

expectations [6]. Web apps tend to be recommended if the

organization needs to circumvent app stores, build an e-commerce

storefront that is searchable on the web, or create a marketing site

that is also easily searchable and accessible through the web.

The point of this exploration is not to pick a winner, but to know the

strengths and weakness of each application type. The choice between

native, web, or hybrid is dependent on a number of factors, including

business needs, app requirements, developer skill, and development

timelines. All potential types should be explored and evaluated before

implementing a mobile strategy.

[1] http://mobilehtml5.org/[2] http://blog.forecast.io itsnotawebappitsanappyouinstallfromtheweb/[3] https://github.com/ftlabs/fastclick[4] http://blog.flurry.com/bid/109749/AppsSolidifyLeadershipSixYearsintotheMobileRevolution[5]https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebookengineering/underthehoodrebuildingfacebookforios/10151036091753920[6]http://www.techtimetea.com/trendsenterprisemobility2014/

W R I T T E N B Y

Mitch PronschinskeMitch Pronschinske is the Head Analyst for DZones Research division. He has been writing, curating, and editing content for an audience of IT professionals for over four years. In that time he has learned the complexity that software producers deal with on a daily basis, and he strives to make their world easier to understand and digest.

The choIce BeTWeeN NATIve,

WeB, oR hyBRID IS DepeNDeNT

oN A NumBeR oF FAcToRS,

INcluDINg BuSINeSS

NeeDS, App RequIRemeNTS,

DevelopeR SKIll, AND

DevelopmeNT TImelINeS.



The forces pushing enterprises to mobile

are so well documented and talked about

that they dont really bear repeating.

The business case has been made. The

organization has spoken, and the response

from IT is quite varied.

The early adopters listened to public

examples, like Facebook, and decided that

native was the way they had to go even if

their app bore no resemblance to the public

use case. What they unfortunately ran into

was a big bag of hurt. The fundamentally

splintered approach of hand-coded, cross-

device native mobile app development

crushed many of these projects after the

first test app.

Others went down the path of trying to

cram a desktop browser app onto a four-

inch screen, often with disastrous results.

These early wounds

developed into scar tissue

that still leaves some IT

shops hesitant to engage.

The many that are pushing

(or being pushed) past that

fear are understandably

cautious and curious:

What are my options? Which path should I choose (pros and

cons)?

What first app gives the biggest bang for my buck?

HOW DO I GET STARTED QUICKLY?

Much has changed since the time of these

first painful forays, as is always the case

with technology. The state-of-the-art has

advanced to a point where enterprises can

meet the high demands of their customers,

partners, and employees with amazingly rich

UX that weaves data, process, and practice

cohesively inside apps that run beautifully on

any form factor they are used on.

For more information, go to http://bit.ly/m-

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Allows creation of more complex systems, including those using large volumes of data and non-trivial workflows

Not just for building single-function apps

OutSystems provides an open, high-productivity PaaS that allows users to create, deploy, and manage enterprise mobile and web apps with integration into existing systems. OutSystems includes Continuous Delivery facilities to deploy and manage those apps after release, including lifecycle governance and integrated UX monitoring.

Liberty Seguros is a leading insurance company and part of the Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group - a global insurer and sixth largest property and casualty company in the United States. Libertys vision was to connect every single department and external partner through an end-to-end solution that placed the customer at the core of operations and analytics. The single information system would streamline collaboration with external partners such as agents, repair shops, customers, and more. Liberty is a great example of what long-term use of OutSystems Platform can produce. Fast forward 10 years and Liberty Connect is a mature collaborative platform with customers at its core. It allows every area of the company, including external partners, to interact in real time, and that has made it possible for Liberty to completely sustain its business without losing the ability to offer customer-centric services.

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A few months back, I was asked to talk about my job in front of a class of 8th graders during a local schools career day event. To simplify things, I told the class that I build mobile applications for companies. I explained that the apps I create are like the apps that you find on the app store, except they are built for businesses. One of the students raised her hand and said that she had built an iPhone app in two weeks!

Thats right, 8th graders are now building iPhone apps, and one of them was asking me what was so tough about my job? Upon reflection, I realized that over the last 15 years of building mobile apps, we have come a long way from the time when it used to take developers months or sometimes more than a year to build one app. You would need highly skilled mobile application developers for Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Blackberry, but now even kids can build iOS and Android apps.

There does seem to be an app for everything these days, but the one area over the last decade that remains a complex and costly endeavor is integrating the mobile facing client application with enterprise systems. Integration comes with challenges that include adherence to IT security policies for Single Sign-On (SSO), integrating with one or more back-end applications, complying with data encryption policies, and other obstacles that still exist after a decade of unprecedented technological progress.

Today, there are many frameworks and tools that help mobile client developers build native, web, or hybrid mobile applications. However, there are fewer tools that make your life just as easy when integrating the client facing application with enterprise systems. I wonder what the 8th graders response would have been if I had asked her to authenticate her application via SSO and integrate it with an enterprise application for data?

ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION MAkES MOBIlE HARDERCreating mobile applications continues to create new challenges for the IT team. Even talented programmers find that they might not have the specific expertise required for exposing back-end services so they can be readily and securely consumed by mobile applications. Not only is IT struggling to provide the required skill sets for a mobile world, they

are finding it difficult to meet new expectations for project timelines.

Additionally, it is rare for customers to say that they need a mobile app in the next 12 to 18 months. Most customers expect applications to be delivered in a few days or weeks. Customers and even development professionals often underestimate how difficult it is to build, connect, secure, deploy, and manage a mobile app.

The reason for this is because writing a standalone client app and posting it to the app store isnt the difficult part. The difficult part, especially for the enterprise, is making that application talk effectively to back-end enterprise systems. It is also about securing the data accessed by the app as it connects to the back-end systems. To do that, developers must devise ways to extract critical information from back-end applications and data repositories, while also delivering output optimized for mobile devices.

HARD DECISIONSMobile development also forces hard decisions about what features to include from the backend. Mobile is not about putting wheels on the system of record (SOR) and calling it mobile. Mobile apps must be designed with context in mind and with the supporting data source(s) to deliver the context. In the past, mobile applications were mostly integrated to one on-premise back-end application. Today, enterprises are beginning to deploy a distributed application environment with the core applications remaining on-premise and others being moved to the cloud (sales, HCM, etc.). In addition, there are other public cloud services, such as geolocation, payment, social networking, collaboration, and messaging, that drive additional context for the user when integrated with mobile applications.

These mashups deliver a final challenge to IT, which is that these applications must scale reliably with enterprise-grade performance. Many enterprises have not faced this challenge because they have only dealt with the tactical deployment of one or two mobile apps.

However, as the user volume grows from a predictable B2E volume to an unpredictable B2C volume, the ability of the infrastructure to scale and perform at an enterprise-grade becomes critical to providing an excellent quality of experience (QoE). A slow response for data from the backend will have end-users abandoning an application despite the best user interface, which will cripple the overall user experience.

Back-end inteGration: a major headache for enterprise mobility

by suhas uliyar



SOA AND MOBIlEWasnt the promise of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to provide a high-performing and reliable services layer that integrates the back-end applications and abstracts them from the consumers of data (i.e. the multichannel clients)? So, why do you need a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP) or Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) in order to develop mobile enterprise applications?

The truth is you dont. MEAPs and MADPs came into existence to solve both the clientside development challenges as well as the back-end integration challenges. They do this by providing a consistent way to integrate with back-end systems and provide additional mobile services such as bidirectional sync for offline applications, push notifications, application provisioning, and version control.

SOA vendors were being used primarily for web applications or application-to-application integration. They were not focused on solving the mobile integration problems, such as providing a lightweight protocol for delivering output optimized for a mobile device. This led to fragmented, duplicated, and siloed architectures, one for mobile and one for the rest of the applications.

FUlFIllING THE PROMISE OF SOAThe middleware infrastructure designed for web-based applications can now support mobile clients by exposing existing services or reshaping existing services as RESTful APIs, which are the preferred mechanism to integrate services for mobile applications. Those features, which used to be unique to MADP vendor platforms (e.g. push messaging, sync, caching), are now often available as features of the middleware technology stack.

As data gets distributed and fragmented, orchestrating data between these back-end systems becomes a requirement. With user identity distributed, it becomes a critical requirement to have a federated identity with integration to SSO that supports different authentication protocols (such as OAuth 2.0 and SAML) along with traditional enterprise user stores (LDAP, AD). It is critical to have a middleware architecture that brings together an integrated identity management solution and an integration architecture that exposes services

that can be consumed by multiple channels. In addition, this infrastructure must have built-in reliability, scalability, and performance that can handle a growing and potentially unpredictable volume of traffic above your existing web traffic. This is what is going to make an enterprise successful in delivering effective multi-channel applications.With the move towards the cloud, Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) provides a standard approach to deal with complex server-side programming. It provides a set of rich RESTFul interfaces for all the operations required by the mobile app and abstracts the backend from the mobile developer. MBaaS comes with built-in mobile-specific SDKs/APIs and services, custom and third party APIs, containers to build and orchestrate services, integrated security, analytics, monitoring, and management. With all these features, client developers can focus more on front-end applications by using their choice of mobile client development tools for native, web, or hybrid apps. This enables developers to simplify development by integrating with mobile-ready APIs exposed in the cloud.

The promise of SOA is being fulfilled, so now what? You might not need a MEAP or MADP that solves a niche problem. Mobile is no longer tactical; it is critical to business success. Businesses are looking for an enterprise-wide mobile-first strategy for B2E and B2C applications that leverages and complies with their back-end infrastructure for security and integration. Enterprises are looking to reduce cost of ownership and deliver to their business by reusing common components. They are always looking for ways to simplify enterprise mobility. After a decade of mainly front-end innovations, were finally starting to see solutions that also simplify back-end concerns.

W R I T T E N B Y

Suhas UliyarMr. Suhas Uliyar is a 19-year mobile industry veteran, known as a strategist and technology evangelist responsible for designing and developing enterprise mobile applications, middleware, and tools. Suhas is responsible for driving Oracles mobile strategy and vision. He is a seasoned executive with years of technical and business management experience in enterprise software. He has a successful track record as both an entrepreneur in small start-ups and as an executive with major industry leaders. Suhas has held leadership positions with SAP, Motorola Solutions, Spring Wireless, Dexterra (Antenna Software), and Micromuse (IBM).

moBIle DevelopmeNT FoRceS hARD

DecISIoNS ABouT WhAT FeATuReS To INcluDe FRom The BAcKeND.

moBIle IS NoT ABouT puTTINg WheelS oN The SySTem oF RecoRD AND

cAllINg IT moBIle.

WASNT The pRomISe

oF SeRvIce-oRIeNTeD

ARchITecTuRe (SoA) To

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lAyeR ThAT INTegRATeS The

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coNSumeRS oF DATA (I.e. The

mulTI-chANNel clIeNTS)?

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A Different Kind

of HybridHTML5 Development

Access Native Features

Cross-platform Support

No Native Code

No App Store Submissions

No New Tools



Hybrids deliver native features using

web-based development techniques.

Conventional hybrids bundle the web

app into a native app, but BridgeIt

eliminates this requirement and opens new

possibilities.

hTml5: yeS, BuT...Hybrids use HTML5/CSS3/

JavaScript, but are typically

bundled with an embedded

browser into platform-specific

native apps. These apps are

installed through app stores

and run locally on the device.

BridgeIt apps are pure web

apps. The BridgeIt utility

augments the standard mobile

browser with native features

accessible directly from the

web app. Web deployment

eliminates external approvals,

and the BridgeIt utility is automatically

installed when required.

DevelopmeNT eASeBundling conventional hybrids requires

additional tooling and reduces developer

efficiency. Furthermore, the capabilities of

embedded browsers have lagged behind

best-in-class mobile

browsers like Safari and

Chrome. Developers

must use only the lowest

common capabilities of

the embedded browsers,

setting aside the

powerful new features of

HTML5/CSS3.

No bundling is required

with BridgeIt, and the

web app leverages

best-in-class browser

capabilities. The BridgeIt

utility augments the standard browser with

native features and is automatically installed

when required.

SImple DISTRIBuTIoNConventional hybrids are native apps

and are typically published to platform-

specific app stores. External approval and

publication processes are onerous and time

consuming, which increases support costs.

As web apps, BridgeIt hybrids leverage

server-based distribution. They are not

subject to app store submission processes or

approvals, and support costs are reduced.

bridgeit: NoT All hyBRIDS ARe cReATeD equAl

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Steve MarykaCTO, ICEsoft Technologies

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TWITTeR @icefaces phoNe (403) 663-3322

Automated device theming enables a single web application to adopt the look of the native mobile device it is viewed from

Extends the ICEfaces Ajax Push capabilities with Cloud Push, leveraging native platform push capabilities to deliver notifications even when the application is not active

Extends the ICEfaces framework with a suite of mobile controls for UI development

ICEmobile is a framework for developing cross-platform mobile web applications with Java EE and JSF. ICEmobile supports hybrid application development with the ICEmobile containers and integrates with the BridgeIt utility application.

A large parcel delivery company had a legacy application running on Java EE infrastructure, and was accessed by employees using desktop browsers. Evolving business demands required the functionality be extended to include external users/customers accessing the application via tablets and smart phones. Development and support costs associated with native mobile development were unacceptable, and app store publication was undesirable. ICEmobile enabled them to leverage legacy software investments and easily extend their existing desktop application into the mobile space. ICEmobiles suite of mobile JSF components simplified the application design, and minimized development and support costs. Additionally, ICEmobiles push and hybrid capabilities future proofed their product roadmap.

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Data is critical to an organization, but

thats not news to anybody. Its not just

a by-product of doing business, it is the

business. Being able to access and digest

that data is a competitive edge. For many

years, it sat behind large CRT monitors and

enterprise grade firewalls. The data stayed

safe and sound in the data center. Laptops

were the first to challenge the system. VPN

connections arose to answer the outcry and

help keep data safely at home.

Then mobile showed up and knocked on the

door. Mobile devices with their silky smooth

designs and futuristic form factors that let

you access your email, approve workflows,

and close a sale.

KeepINg IT SAFeBuilding mobile apps is not the same as

developing desktop and web apps. Our

standardized tools buy us little to nothing

when it comes to mobile devices. So the

question becomes, how do I let my data

leave the nest, but make sure that it stays

safe and protected?

The TRADITIoNAl SeRvIceS lAyeRServices are the key

to securely unlocking

enterprise data on

mobile devices. We

used to call them web

services but now they

are known as APIs.

One of the difficult

things about services

is that they present

architectural challenges that are not easily

answered until you implement them. While

the services layer is a necessary abstraction,

its also an added level of complexity and

maintenance.

pAAS AND pRe-BuIlT coNNecTIvITyThe future of productivity in building

connected mobile apps is not in creating

more services and acquiring

more technical debt. The future

is in leveraging the productivity

features that PaaS offers, such as

pre-built connectors, to securely

expose enterprise data, thereby

allowing development teams to

concentrate on building world-

class applications.

For more information, please

visit: www.telerik.com/platform

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Includes a comprehensive mobile UI library

Supports all three development approaches: web, hybrid, and native

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Telerik Platform is a cross-platform solution that includes UI libraries for web, hybrid, and native development as well as a suite of integrated cloud services. It addresses the entire lifecycle of the app, and integrates with any development environment.

With a focus on technology and service, Paylocity is constantly striving to offer the latest tools and solutions to make payroll and HR processes easier. With the shift to a mobile-focused world, the company recognized the need for a mobile app that would enable their ESS users to view and make changes to their accounts via any mobile device. With Telerik Platform, Paylocity was able to create a secure cross-platform mobile app to serve its client-base of over 7000 organizations in less than 6 months.

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moBIle uX refining perceived performanceby andreW trice

Performance is critical when you are building apps for mobile devices. When using a device that is built for accomplishing tasks quickly and on the go, like a smartphone, performance is an even bigger concern than on desktops. Being users ourselves, we all understand this, but we also understand that users cant see an apps network timelines or latency scores. The users perception of application performance depends upon aesthetic design, feedback to the user, speed of information, and much more. All they see is the user experience you have crafted for them, so even if your performance metrics are great, your apps can still feel slow if you dont employ the right techniques in your code. In many ways, perceived performance is more important than actual performance. In this article, were going to focus on the users perception of performance.

Lets first examine two major use cases for mobile apps: accessing

information on the go, and entertainment. If you are accessing

information on the go, there is a good chance you are in a hurry

or youre on a limited-speed connection. You need the app to

give you the information you need as fast as possible. In the

case of entertainment, you just need the app to provide fluid

interaction. In this case, performance is part of the entertainment

factor. In both of these cases, the apps performance is not simply

characterized by how fast the app is processing information

behind the scenes. Rather, this extends into the apps design and

system architecture.

INSTANT FEEDBACkThe most immediate factor of an apps performance actually

has nothing to do with raw processing power. User feedback, or

some sort of response to user input, is probably the most critical

factor to having an app that seems to perform well. If you touch a

button, that button should immediately provide feedback to the

user. If you swipe across the screen to drag an object, that object

should follow the users touch immediately.

Most native components will handle user feedback (ie: button

states) for you. However, if you are building a mobile web or

hybrid application, it is extremely important that you build in

some sort of user feedback to inform your users that their input

has been received and you are performing some sort of action.

The button press case is extremely basic, but if you have a user

interface that doesnt acknowledge the user input, then there is

no way for the user to know that the input has been received.

Regardless of whether or not this app is actually slow, the user

will perceive the app as being slow or buggy simply because

there is nothing to let the user know that their input has been

received and that the app is preparing a response.

lOADING ANIMATIONSAfter youve tapped a button, does your app let the user know

that something is happening, or does the UI simply lock up until

the next piece of data is ready? If its possible (and in most cases,

it is), you should never lock up the user interface thread while

you are requesting data from a remote source. This is a major red

flag and users will immediately notice when the entire application

locks up and becomes unresponsive.

A better way of handling this would be to request data in a

background thread (so it does not lock up the UI) and present

the user with some sort of visual cue that an action is being

performed. By handling data in a background thread, the app

stays responsive and never feels like its freezing up. If youre

building a hybrid or mobile web app, dont worry; the browsers

XMLHttpRequest wont lock up your webviews UI, so this is less

of an issue.

Rather than just making your user wait until data is available

before changing views, you can change the user perception

and trick them into feeling that the app is faster by providing

some sort of feedback. It could be as simple as a spinner or a

progress bar, however, these have also been known to draw the

users attention to the fact that they are waiting. Alternatively,

you could create a loading view animation that slowly removes

the previous pages data or shows pieces of the new data as it is

loaded. Overall, you want to have some way of entertaining and

distracting the user while they wait. By engaging the user with

animation, you are changing the perceived performance and user

experience of the application, even if the loading time does not

actually change.

FAMIlIAR NATIvE PHYSICS AND GESTURESButtons and animations are great for any form factor, but the

features that make mobile so convenient and elegant to use

have always been the touch controls. There is a common set of

interface physics and gestures that all popular mobile platforms

share, including momentum scrolling, side swipes, pull-to-refresh,

and multi-touch zooming controls.

Its important for app designers to harness these mobile-specific

controls wherever they can, and they need to be snappy.

Natively built apps dont have too many issues with these built-in



controls, but web and hybrid apps can have issues recreating this

functionality. Luckily, there are tools and CSS controls that can help.

For implementing momentum scrolling, you can use the overflow-

scrolling: touch property on the container and then write some

JavaScript that only applies that class if the container is visible. The

JavaScript is necessary because that CSS property disables the

tap-the-top feature of mobile browsers that commonly sends you

back to the top of the page. For implementing gestures like pull-to-

refresh and zooming controls, there are plenty of great JavaScript

libraries that can help, such as Hook.js and Hammer.js.

HARNESS THE GPU In many cases, youll use animations in your mobile apps, especially

in the loading instances mentioned above, but how do you make

sure those animations are fluid and snappy? Obviously, stuttering

or choppy animations can be very problematic. They give the

user the feeling that the app is slow and buggy. This is one of the

major issues that people often complain about with HTML-based

applications. In native applications, this is less of an issue unless

you are doing something extremely complicated. Generally, native

animations are fast and smooth.

In HTML applications there are ways to make the app feel faster and

make animations smoother. Avoiding computationally-expensive

browser reflow operations is critical for making fluid animations.

Browser reflow operations occur when your contents size changes,

or the position of your content changes, causing it to impact the

layout of neighboring DOM elements. If you change width, height,

or top/bottom/left/right styles of a DOM element, this will trigger

browser reflow operations.

If you want to animate your content in HTML, you can use CSS

transitions or animations with the transform:translate3d (x,y,z)

style. This style forces rendering of your DOM content on the GPU

and can also be used to move or animate your content without

triggering those expensive browser reflow operations. This

technique can be used to achieve solid 50-60 frames per second

animations in mobile web experiences. However, it is also important

to make sure that the DOM elements you are animating dont

exceed the GPU maximum texture size. Otherwise, you could end

up with an annoying flicker in your animations, which completely

ruins the user experience.

PREEMPTIvE PERFORMANCEAnother technique that you can use to make your application feel

extremely fast is to preempt user actions before the user performs

them. For example, lets say you capture an image with your app.

You start uploading that image before the user has actually said

theyd like to upload the image. The user then enters a name and

description, and by the time the user hits the upload button the

image is already uploaded. Then, when the user does hit upload,

they will be amazed at how quickly the upload took place. This

is exactly what Instagram does in their app, and it is part of what

set Instagram apart from their competition early on. Preemption

doesnt work in every scenario. You dont want to aggressively load

data that may never be necessary, but it can work extremely well in

the cases where it does fit.

All DECISIONS MUST CONSIDER UXIn a nutshell, perceived performance is really all about

understanding how the user experiences UI performance, not the

actual performance metrics. You need to consider how the end

user is going to be impacted by every technical and architectural

decision that you make. If there is ever a situation where the user

needs to wait, then give them feedback to let them know that the

app is still working. Request data during an animation sequence,

or play animations while the app is doing something else in the

background. Preempt data loading if you can. If you cant, then

you might want to consider lazy-loading your data. If youre

building a web app, let the GPU handle the UI in any way possible.

Regardless of the interaction, it is critical to develop your apps in a

fashion that tailors the experience to the users delight.transitions or animations with the transform:translate3d (x,y,z) style. This style forces rendering of your DOM content on the GPU and can also be used to move or animate your content without triggering those expensive browser reflow operations. This technique can be used to achieve solid 5060 frames per second animations in mobile web experiences. However, it is also important to make sure that the DOM elements you are animating dont exceed the GPU maximum texture size. Otherwise, you could end up with an annoying flicker in your animations, which completely ruins the user experience.

W R I T T E N B Y

Andrew TriceAndrew Trice is a Technical Evangelist with Adobe Systems. He has more than a decade of experience designing, implementing, and delivering rich applications for the web, desktop, and mobile devices. He is an experienced architect, team leader, accomplished speaker, and published author, specializing in object-oriented principles, mobile development, real-time data systems, GIS, and data visualization.

Another technique that you can use to make your application feel extremely fast is to preempt user actions before the user performs them. This is exactly what Instagram does in their app, and it is part of what set

Instagram apart from their competition early on.



the step-by-stepmoBIle ApplIcATIoN DevelopmeNT checKlIST

geNeRAl App plANNINg

F Write a statement of purpose or elevator pitch for your application.

F Gather expected user requirements (a survey of potential users could be helpful).

F Gather business requirements for the application.

F Examine the potential competition for your app (business model, strengths, weaknesses).

F Determine the IT resources required to support this application.

F Create a list of the core functionality for version 1.0 (Minimum Viable Product).

F Make a whiteboard drawing of the architecture.

F Decide if your app will be a native, web, or hybrid app (or if you will build multiple types).

F If your app is native or hybrid, determine the platforms for distribution.

F Determine if you will build a different app for different form factors (phone, tablet, TV, etc.).

F Decide on the development sourcing strategy (insourcing, outsourcing, or co-sourcing).

F Identify the team members and stakeholders for this project along with their responsibilities.

F Determine who will support the app when its finished.

F Collaborate with team members to build a structured and repeatable project calendar.

F Construct a marketing strategy in parallel with app development. Execute pre-release marketing.

eNTeRpRISe App plANNINg

F Ask employees what they would like to have in a mobile app.

F Identify processes that could be handled more efficiently with a mobile app.

F Identify data that could be monitored more often with a mobile app.

F Find out which systems mobile workers need to access frequently (e.g. internal web portals).

F Ensure your enterprise mobile systems have fast data access using authorized methods.

DeSIgN AND DevelopmeNT

F Harness design and development tools that will make your team as efficient and effective as possible.

F Compile a list of objects and actions for the application and their relation to each other.

F Reduce screen elements down to the bare essentials.

F Build wireframes for each screen in the app along with a navigation map.

F Build a functioning prototype with MVP features.

F Do usability tests on the prototype, covering every item on your user and business requirements lists.

SecuRITy

F Decide if your app will use custom tokens or security standards (e.g. SAML, OAuth).

F Determine if your app needs SSO for logging into multiple apps.

TeSTINg

F Prepare an appropriate on-device, real-time testing and debugging strategy.

F Determine which devices you need to acquire, then integrate them into the teams testing workflow.

F Have a plan for reacting quickly to issues on untested devices.

F Harness user simulation scripts and load testing tools to test user and business requirements in high traffic conditions.

F Log and visualize all appropriate data for easy pinpointing of problematic code.

F Ensure that your app meets the requirements for any target app stores.

F Conduct private beta testing with all of your employees (not just IT).

F Conduct beta tests with real-world users. Try giving out gift cards at a coffee shop to recruit testers.

lAuNch

F Determine a build and deployment process that lets you deploy updates early and often.

F Complete the tasks necessary for deployment to your target app stores.

F For non-app store distribution, prepare an app server for wireless distribution.

F Follow any platform requirements for non-app store distribution.

F Execute your marketing plans for launch.

F Monitor app performance and track new software bugs.

F Collect data on real-world usage and monitor feedback from customers.

F Continue to improve the app according to a roadmap based on customer behavior.



In this section of the guide you will find profiles of the most

promising mobile development platforms and frameworks

to help you develop mobile apps more efficiently.

To view an extended profile of any product, you can use

the short-code link found at the bottom of each profile, or

simply go to dzone.com/research/mobile and enter in the

shortcode at the end of the link.

The SoluTIoNS DIRecToRy

Get easy access to full product profiles with this URL

m A D p

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -JAvA- -oBJecTIve-c- -c#-- -moBIle mIDDleWARe-

TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeS cATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @phonegap

FRee TRIAl Open source solution

Allows developers to remotely build apps in the cloud using PhoneGap Build

Can instantly update apps without recompiling

Features an App Store for building apps without installing separate SDKs

Hundreds of plugins are available for accessing native device APIs

Cordova/PhonegapAndroidiOSWindows PhoneBlackBerry

Consumer Apps

Enterprise Apps (for internal use)

STReNgThS

PhoneGap lets you create native apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and more.

Adobe Phonegap BY ADOBE

Full pRoFIle lINK

dzone.com/r/ vq6x

WebHybrid

Native

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -oN-pRemISe- -hoSTeD- -moBIle mIDDleWARe-- -IDe-

TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeS cATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @alphaSWcorp


Focus on front-end to back-end and prototype-to-production development for online and offline enterprise applications

Uses a single code base across all platforms, and integrates with several existing databases and web services

Offers a coding-optional approach to improve developer productivity

Responsive application design for both mobile and desktop

Cordova/Phonegap


STReNgThS

Alpha Anywhere is a prototypetoproduction environment to develop and deploy enterpriselevel, crossplatform mobile and web business apps.

Alpha Anywhere BY ALPHA SOFTWARE

Full pRoFIle lINK

dzone.com/r/ xkyW

WebHybridNative

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -moBIle mIDDleWARe- -ReST + SoAp- -IDe-- -oAuTh2-

TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeS cATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @appcelerator


Create rich native iOS, Android, hybrid, and mobile web apps from a single JavaScript-based SDK

Integrates with other Appcelerator tools such as Studio, Alloy, and Cloud Services to simplify the development process

Efficient code modules to reduce development time by allowing users to write less code

Built to create apps that scale with business needs

AndroidiOSWindows PhoneBlackberry

Consumer Apps


STReNgThS

Build, test, package, and publish mobile apps using JavaScript and a single code base, without managing multiple toolkits or languages.

Appcelerator Titanium BY APPCELERATOR

Full pRoFIle lINK

dzone.com/r/ ysX9

WebHybridNative


dzone.com/research/mobile m A D p

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -hoSTeD- -oN-pRemISe- -moBIle mIDDleWARe-- -IDe-

TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeS cATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @apperyio

FRee TRIAl Full-featured free version

Visual, drag-and-drop UI builder for creating HTML5, jQuery Mobile, and PhoneGap apps

Integrated backend services (database, push, server code)

Connect to 3rd party APIs with visual data binding editor

Integration with enterprise data via APIs, Web Services, LDAP, or other custom data sourcesCordova/Phonegap

AndroidiOSWindows Phone

B2B Enterprise Apps

STReNgThS

Accelerate enterprise mobile app development with Appery.io, the cloudbased platform with visual development tools and integrated mBaaS.

Appery.io BY EXADEL

Full pRoFIle lINK

dzone.com/r/ 7quh

WebHybrid

Native

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TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeScATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @appmachine

FRee TRIAl Free to use, but cannot publish apps without a license

Designer uses a drag-and-drop building block paradigm

Web design effort results in completely native code output

Extensible via JavaScript and custom web service integration

Built in CMS, analytics, and push notifications

Web crawler allows users to use existing materials and plugins from their site in their AppMachine app

AndroidiOS

Consumer Apps


STReNgThS

AppMachine offers AppsasaService, a new codefree or codelite way to create custom mobile apps, both native and web.

AppMachine BY APPMACHINE

Full pRoFIle lINK

dzone.com/r/ jpgR

WebHybrid

Native

TAgS -JAvAScRIpT- -oN-pRemISe- -oAuTh2- -DRAg-N-DRop--

TARgeTS

SySTemS

uSeS cATegoRy MADP TWITTeR @BlackBerryDev


Built on open source Apache Cordova to provide cross-platform capabilities

Allows developers to reuse current JavaScript libraries or any public javascript libraries

Large network of supported developer tools, making it easier for developers to migrate to developing native BlackBerry apps

Allows developers to reuse many existing web assets when porting to systems such as iOS and Android

Cordova/PhonegapBlackberry

Consumer Apps

Enterprise Apps

DZResearch_2014MobileDevelopmentGuide_4

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