The Cross-Platform ConundrumSelecting the right tool for business

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With mobile application development turning mainstream, developers are increasingly looking at cross-platform mobile application development tools to help reduce cost of development and improve time-to-market. Cross-platform mobile application development tools attempt to deliver these benefits by providing a neutral way of writing applications using their own particular language/dialect/tools that is then translated into the multiple forms required for deployment to each mobile platform.

Customer interest in cross-platform mobile application development is at an all-time high. This is evinced by a 20% increase in vendors providing qualified mobile application development tools and frameworks in 2011 and a significant flow of venture capital and other investments in this area.1 In addition, vendor consolidation also increased with Adobe® acquiring Nitobi PhoneGap, IBM® acquiring Worklight, SAP® acquiring Syclo, Antenna Software® acquiring Volantis, Dexterra and others.

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Approaches to cross-platform development

Gartner, Inc. has categorized the approaches to overall mobile application development as follows:

Source: Gartner Inc. “New Directions for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms: Convergence 2012, Multichannel 2018” Published: 29 February 2012

Figure 1: Categories of Approaches to Mobile Application Development (AD)

Scope of 2012MEAP MagicQuadrant

MEAPs with prepackaged appsFor example, SAP Sybase, Syclo, Antenna (AMP), Spring Wireless and Verivo

Native AD toolsets and runtimesFor example, Xcode + Cocoa Touch, Visual Studio, Java Development, Blackberry SDK, Android SDK and NDK

MCAPs, AD tools with web supportFor example, Kony Solutions, Adobe (Flash, PhoneGap), Silverlight

JavaScript and RIA frameworksFor example, Sencha, jQueryMobile, Dojox Mobile, Modolabs

Web adapter/transcoding toolsFor example, Netbiscuits, Usablenet, Antenna (Volantis)

Smartphone-optimized siteUsing current Web tools - for example, Oracle Fatwire, Akamai

Do nothing - rely 100% on webUsers access current site

Native

Web

Cost

/Com

plex

ity

Quality of User Experience

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Cross-platform mobile application development refers to a subset of these approaches that allows the user to “write-once” and deploy to multiple mobile platforms.

Web-basedOn one hand, these approaches could completely rely on the web and use the browser application on the device as the translation environment—as depicted by the approaches below the blue dotted line in Figure 1. However, such applications lack the sophistication of native applications and browser-based deployment hinders application discoverability and adoption.

Hybrid web appsHybrid web applications seek to overcome some of these disadvantages by allowing a regular web application, consisting of HTML/CSS/Javascript files, to be deployed locally on a device, packaged up in a native distributable package that can be distributed via popular application stores.

Frameworks that support the development of hybrid web applications include PhoneGap® (Adobe®) and MoSync. Web-based frameworks that assist the creation of rich web applications, such as Sencha Touch®, SproutcoreTM, jQuery®Mobile and QuickConnect® can be used along with above-mentioned hybrid web application frameworks (e.g., PhoneGap®) to create hybrid web applications.

Script-based frameworksSome of the popular tools categorized as MCAP (Mobile Consumer Application Platforms) follow a script-based framework approach that requires the application to be written using a framework-specific dialect of a standard scripting language (e.g., Javascript, Ruby, Lua). Commonly this script is executed on the device through an interpreter which the framework packages up with the application.

Examples of this class of framework include Appcelerator® and RhoMobile® platforms.

Platform approachIn this category the tools adopt a platform approach, complete with a fully integrated IDE, middleware components, connectors to enterprise systems, device connection layer components such as authentication service and sync service.

Examples include KonyTM and Sybase® Unwired Platform (SUP) amongst others.

Packaged applicationsThis category provides end-to-end vertical solutions that can be customized and deployed within an enterprise. Solutions include asset management, sales force automation and banking solutions.

Examples include SAP®-Syclo,VerivoTM and Spring Wireless amongst other mobile applications.

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The plethora of cross-platform approaches and proliferation of vendor offerings can easily perplex customers. The low adoption barrier for most of these tools (e.g., opensource and low development license costs) can often lead customers to evaluate vendors and their solutions based on the most immediate requirements such as number of platforms supported, a rich feature set and ease of development. However, requirements evolve over the application development lifecycle and the selected solution may no longer serve the extended requirements of the business.

Accenture recommends a holistic approach to evaluation of cross-platform application development strategy that can lead to long term business value. It involves a thorough evaluation of the mobile application lifecycle within the customer context and identifying business requirements associated with each lifecycle phase. These requirements, weighted by their relative importance, can then be used to score the various approaches and to narrow down the options.

Options galore ... selecting the right partner

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The major phases in the application lifecycle can be characterized as below:

1. Ramp-up PhaseIn this phase, the team familiarizes itself with the selected mobile application platform capabilities and associated infrastructure and tools. Trainings and environment configuration are followed by a successful “Hello World” application.

2. Design-Build-Test (DBT)In this phase the functional requirements are translated into technical architecture. The emphasis is on multi-site development, agile workflow, rapid integration and integrity of functional requirements.

3. Train and DeployThis phase involves a brief pilot run, quick alterations to incorporate feedback from the field, followed by large scale deployment of the application.

4. MaintenanceThis is the phase with the longest span and includes defect fixes, enhancements, application porting and asset creation.

The Application Lifecycle

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“Key asks”

Throughout the application lifecycle, the mobile application development tool and the tool vendor remain an integral part of the customer’s mobility strategy. The tool and the vendor firm need to provide varied capabilities and support elements throughout the lifecycle. Based on key activities performed across the application lifecycle phases—as outlined in the above section—the key asks from the tool and the vendor firm vary and cover a gamut of areas, from the tactical to the very strategic.

Figure 2: Key asks from mobile AD tool and vendor firm in each lifecycle phase

“Key

ask

s”

Degree ofdependence

Ramp-up

• Skill training

• Developer support

forums

• Ease of development

• Developer support forums

• Ease of development

• Platforms support

• Features support

• UI

• Quailty assurance

• Developer support forums

• Ease of development

• Quallity assurance

• Performance

• Developer support forums

• Ease of development

• Platforms support

• Features support

• Quality of UI

• Quality assurance

• Performance

• Openness

• Future-proof

• Platform TCO

• Business orientation

DBT Train & Deploy Sustain

Source: Accenture

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From the above depiction, it becomes clear that the most popular criteria applied for evaluation of mobile application development tools, such as ease of development and platforms/features support, are based on just a few key requirements in the Ramp-up and DBT phases. However, specific requirements are added in subsequent phases that ultimately decide the prudence of the investment made.

Also, depending upon the business context, the relative importance of each of these key asks will vary. For example, ‘Openness’ of the platform may be a key value driver in comparison with ‘Ease of development’. So an important part of the evaluation process is formulating a model that assigns relative weights to each key ask. The weights thus assigned will be a function of the business and technology priorities. In a quantitative evaluation model these weights can then be applied to scored values against each key ask.

We now look at the factors in more detail.

Table 1: Description of key asks from mobile AD tool and vendor firm

Key ask Description

Skill trainings Does the tool require new skills to be learned or can existing skills and resources be leveraged?

Does the vendor firm provide assistance towards training?

Developer support forums Does the vendor firm maintain an official technical support site?

Are there active public forums?

Ease of development Does the tool offer an integrated environment for GUI design, programming and testing?

Availability of quality documentation?

Platforms support The multitude of mobile platforms supported. HTML? Desktop web?

Features support Richness of features – UI, multimedia, sensors, security, back-end connectors, etc.

Quality of UI Quality of UI elements as compared to native look-and-feel

Quality assurance Does the tool provide an integrated test/verification framework? Ease of debugging, performance analysis, etc.

Performance The memory footprint and responsiveness of application binary

Openness Is the tool open-source?

Does it allow external contributions?

Is there a healthy ecosystem for modules/plug-ins?

Future-proof Does the tool provide SLAs on incorporating support for newer platform features and revisions?

Does the tool allow break-out to native code?

Can existing native libraries be reused?

Couplings Independence of applications from native platform changes/updates?

Independence of applications from cloud/remote services?

Platform TCO What are the one-time and ongoing development and deployment costs?

Update and support costs?

Business orientation Maturity of the company? Robustness of product roadmap

Ability to implement on product roadmap

Installed customer base

Client’s ability to observe and influence product roadmap?

Source: Accenture

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In practice …

A company wishes to develop mCommerce applications that will allow customers to browse its products online, make inapplication purchases, redeem purchases using digital coupons and receive notifications about promotions and discounts. These are B2C applications that will allow the company to engage with its customers in a more meaningful manner. Mobile solutions are a critical part of the company’s growth strategy and it intends to leverage cross-platform mobile application development tools to help reduce the cost of application development and maintenance as well as improve time to market.

The application requirements can be summarized as below:

The next section describes how the evaluation parameters explained above were used to score the various solutions and to narrow down the options.

# UI screens 30 – 50 screens

15 – 25 modules

5 – 10 modules

20 – 30 services

Business logic modules

Platform integration modules

Web service integration

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Evaluation approach

A list of candidate cross-platform mobile application development tools was shortlisted based on prior experience with the tools, market momentum and community support for the tools and client recommendations. For this example, the tool needed to support generation of locally deployable applications that users could download via application stores and hence web applications were excluded. Enterprise application tools with prepackaged applications (e.g., SAP®-Syclo and VerivoTM) were also excluded from the evaluation as the focus was on consumer applications.

The final list of tools evaluated included:

1. Appcelerator®

2. Marmalade SDK

3. KonyTM

4. jQuery® Mobile (with PhoneGap®)

5. Sencha Touch® (with PhoneGap®)

6. SproutCoreTM (with PhoneGap®)

7. MoSync®

8. RhoMobile®

A multi-stage approach was taken towards the assessment of each tool, comprising of objective research-based data, vendor questionnaires and hands-on practical exercises. Each tool was scored against the parameters listed above. Appropriate computations were performed to convert qualitative observations into quantitative values and to normalize the resulting scores. Finally, the assessment parameters were assigned relative weights based on the business context. In this case, multi-platform support was assigned the highest weight (as this was a B2C application), followed by richness in feature set.

The result of the evaluation and relative scores of the top 3 tools is presented below. The top 3 tools scored a satisfaction rating of 60% or above indicating that it can provide MODERATE to STRONG support for the overall customer requirements.

Thus we see that a comprehensive assessment helps to narrow down options from a large set of seemingly plausible solutions and to align the approach closely with business priorities. Accenture works very closely with clients to help them build their mobile application development strategy, rationalize investments and perform vendor assessments.

Figure 3: Relative scores of the top 3 tools (NOT to scale)

Scor

es

high

low

Skillstraining

Developersupportforums

Ease ofdevelop-

ment

Platformsupport

Featuressupport

Quality ofUI

Qualityassurance

Performance Openness Futrure-proof

Couplings PlatformTCO

Businessorientation

The top 3 tools scored a satisfactionrating of 60% or above

Tool ATool BTool C

Relative weight

Source: Accenture

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Conclusions

Gartner expects enterprise investments in mobile application development to increase at a rate of 20% to 30% per annum through 2015 to meet the rising demand for custom applications.3 Cross-platform mobile application development tools and frameworks that help to reduce the cost of development and improve time to market of mobile applications will continue to be a key focus area. It is therefore important to perform a holistic evaluation of options, not only from a technology stand-point, but also taking into consideration longer term requirements and market momentum.

However in this period of innovation and associated chaos, it is also important to remember that cross-platform approach, vendors and business models will continue to evolve further for the next 1-3 years based on progress in underlying standards and technologies and maturing of application requirements. What is clear is that the role of cross-platform tools in the long term in enabling and supporting mobility solutions is undeniable and those tools that promote open standards and help avoid lock-in will find favor. A periodic review of mobile application development approach and investments every six to twelve months is highly recommended.

Accenture, as part of its Application Factory offer, performs a holistic evaluation of cross-platform application development tools and frameworks and applies the learnings to recommend suitable solutions based on the client’s business context. It also refreshes its assessments periodically based on tool improvements and newer solutions.

Finally, as is the case with any innovative solution, people tend to overestimate its impact in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. The final set of solutions that will emerge from this period of flux will help customers harness the full potential of mobility solutions.

Copyright © 2012 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is not intended to represent or imply the existence of an association between Accenture and the lawful owners of such trademarks.

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Contact UsFor more information about how Accenture can assist with positioning your organization as a mobile trendsetter, please contact:

Juby Jose Manager, Mobile Application Factory juby.jose@accenture.com

Karthik Srinivasan Product Offer Lead – Mobile Application Factory karthik.srinivasa@accenture.com

Robert Palmer Tech Lead, Mobile Web Technologies robert.palmer@accenture.com

Contributors to cross-platform tools evaluation project:

Jeremy Morris Tech Lead (Web Technologies) jeremy.morris@accenture.com

Nithin Vijay Tech Lead (Web Technologies) nithin.vijay@accenture.com

Mark Welsh Tech Lead (Cross-Platform tools) mark.welsh@accenture.com

Rob Pallister Tech Lead (Cross-Platform tools) robert.pallister@accenture.com

About Accenture MobilityAccenture is focused on enabling its clients to achieve breakthrough growth throughout the rapidly changing mobile ecosystem. Accenture Mobility offers five mobility services including consulting, software services – applications, software services – devices and platforms, managed services, and business integration services. These are designed to help organizations embrace business to employee (B2E), business to consumer (B2C), business to business (B2B) and machine to machine (M2M business opportunities. Accenture offers mobility and embedded software services across a wide range of industries and platforms, including Android™, Apple® iOS, Blackberry®, Linux, Meego™, Symbian, Windows® Phone and Windows 8.

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Endnotes1, 2, 3 Copyright © 2012 Gartner Inc. “New Directions for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms: Convergence 2012, Multichannel 2018” Published: 29 February 2012

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