Six elements of mobile application development technology selection

This is a new era, a new opportunity. Since Jobs unveiled the iphone in January 2007, the tide of the mobile era has been rolling forward for nearly 5 years. The industry is moving from freshman to maturity. In such a background of industrial times, a variety of different system platforms, different technical routes, nature is endless, rapid development. For each software developer engaged in the mobile industry, fully understand and master the development of each platform, to understand the advantages and disadvantages of various development technology and direction, is related to the product and its own development of the first priority.

Platform Selection

From 2007 to now, a lot of mobile device-oriented operating system platform has emerged. Regardless of the pre-existing Symbian and Windows Mobile systems, the new system has Apple's iOS, Google's Android, PALM/HP's webOS, Nokia's Maemo/meego, Samsung's Bada, And RIM's new QNX based playbook Tablet OS.

A truly market-owned platform to attract more developers to develop more applications, more applications can in turn for the platform to win more users, thereby promoting the further development of the platform. It is because of the complementary relationship between platform and application that makes the choice of platform become the primary focus of developers.

For developers, the meaning of a mobile platform is not just an operating system, it also includes the entire ecological environment associated with it. The market share of the platform directly determines how many consumers can use the application, and how much the platform itself can bring to the developer. These are the issues that must be considered in platform selection.

There is no doubt that iOS and Android are currently the two largest market share of the platform. These two platforms not only have a large number of users, but also have more developers, applications and downloads than any other platform. Some data can reflect this: Android and its customised version accounted for 58.67% of the market in the latest North American smartphone market share survey this year, with the iphone owning 14.67%,symbian possession of 14.33%,blackberry 9.2%, Bada occupies 3.33%, while Windows Phone accounts for only 1.67% of the shares.

As a platform, iOS has the following major features: First, iOS is a fairly consistent system. Apple currently has only three devices running iOS: The IPhone, the ipad and Apple TV. On the API side, the device properties of these three devices are fairly fixed, and their operating system versions are consistent, which is extremely handy for developers; second, the iOS system itself has a fairly good, built-in smooth user interaction implementation. Even an iOS program written in a textbook, the user experience will not be bad; third, Apple offers a very good iOS app development environment. There are only a few functions that the simulator cannot simulate and must be tested on the real machine; Finally, Apple's own brand is also a very influential support.

Another major platform is Android. With Google's openness to Android (which does not charge manufacturers for licensing fees), as well as the machine-sea tactics of various vendors, large and small, Android handsets are already the first. So choosing the Android platform means choosing the largest user group. In addition, the openness of Android's own source code is a good feature for developers who need to take advantage of the low-level implementation details. And in terms of development itself, the development language and environment that Android uses is relatively lower than the threshold of iOS, which is the advantage. But it is also because of Android's openness that the specifications of Android devices are different on the market, increasing the amount of development and testing that is brought about by the adaptation of the application development model.

With the exception of iOS and Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 has also been a great fanfare since last year. On the WP7 platform, Microsoft still plays the role of a system provider, and hardware production is still a matter for vendors. However, in order to ensure the consistency of the user experience, Microsoft has a very strict set of metrics for the device. Therefore, the current WP7 has no model adaptation problem. In the new mobile market, Microsoft apparently came a little too late to become a competitor with a relatively small market share, far less than iOS and Android. In addition, WP7 provides a proprietary Metro UI interface that is useful for displaying features that are completely different from iOS and Android. From development itself, Microsoft has a greater limit on the tools provided by WP7 developers. There is no support other than Silverlight and XNA. Many non-web based, non-gaming applications cannot be developed on existing platforms. This cannot be said to be a weakness.

In addition to the high share of the BlackBerry in North America, the other platforms only occupy a small share. The BlackBerry system, which has been a more than 10-year lag behind the entire industry, is based on the push mail mechanism integrated into the system, not whether its system is advanced or backward. Symbian is a thing that Nokia has given up on its own, and it doesn't appeal to developers today. webOS untimely, empty a good user experience and a very unique way of development, but ultimately by HP abandoned. Samsung's Bada is as if its own three-acre, only in the Wave series launched.

In terms of market share, developers ' preferred platform is undoubtedly iOS and Android. In addition to the market share already in place and the development prospects that are currently visible, it is also important for developers to see how well the platform will be rewarded to developers and how much support will be available to developers. At this point Apple is doing better than Google. Various surveys show that developers on the iOS platform earn more than the Android platform. In addition, Apple's strict control of the device to the application, although it is criticized, but also justifiably create a single and good environment for application developers. Google's Open-door policy, in turn, has become a matter of policy, with no censorship, leading to many low-quality apps, even malicious apps, in Android Harsh. As with the official Android harsh, the market for a variety of third-party stores is much less.

Of course, there may be other factors when making platform choices. For example, in iOS, the application can not read the user's SMS records, and can not notify the user without sending a text message or call. For applications with such requirements (let's not talk about malicious or aggressive privacy), we can only develop on Android. Therefore, the choice of the platform, the market share, the advantages and disadvantages of the ecological environment, as well as whether the platform can provide the specific work required is a few important factors to consider.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)