In US alone, there are roughly 200 million Americans with smartphones and about half of them stating it’s indispensable to them. The revenue from mobile apps stores reached the astronomical sum of $76 billions in 2017. This justifies the undergoing active development of the tens of thousands of applications for each platform involved. Thus, in March 2018, the number of apps in Google Play alone reached 2.6 million!
However, not all mobile apps have to compete on the market. Some are not visible in searches on these platforms but are used within the small organization for different purposes, yet others are not even on the store and have to be downloaded from websites. Ultimately, if you intend to delegate the creation of your software to any of the mobile app development services, you have to decide first what kind of application you need. This is perhaps the most critical choice you’d face, since choosing wrong can ruin your project.
There are three major types of apps:
- Web,
- Native,
- Hybrid.
Web Applications.
These are applications that can be accessed through a mobile web-browser (not from an application store). Thus, they resemble a website but possess interactive features and additional functionality, but have to be downloaded just like mobile apps.
As a consequence, such an app is cheap to develop and easy to maintain due to a single cross-platform code that can be updated directly on the web. Thus, deployment, updates, features, or sharing are greatly facilitated. JavaScript allows interaction with the device hardware.
Native Applications.
These are created specifically for a given operating system, thus, they are not cross-compatible. They “see” and can interact with the devices operating system, enabling a wealth of behaviors and features with regard to user interface, interaction with the device, etc.
Native apps offer a fast and rich user experience, which integrates deeply with the device, they can work offline, and can be downloaded from the application store. The process of uploading the app to the store or upgrading it can last long and be rather laborious, just like developing it.
Hybrid Applications.
These are installed just like native apps, however, they operate like web apps and are developed using the same languages. To function, they use a minimalist browser. This simplicity makes them a Minimum Viable Product suitable for testing and easy to create, albeit a bit slow. Some important advantages are that hybrids are able to integrate device-level features and the code is common for all operating systems (cross-platform compatibility), sothe choice is yours.
