MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT: THE FUNDAMENTALS

In this technology era where almost no one could live without their mobile phones, businesses should never miss the chance to make use of it. Thousands and thousands of mobile apps are introduced each year, making the app market become more competitive than ever. If you are thinking of building an app for your business, make sure you are well prepared. In this article, we will briefly explain why apps are irreplaceable,  as long as the fundamentals of mobile app development. And then you could consider a way out for your company which is in need of having its own app.

A. Why are mobile apps irreplaceable?

Business exposure: As smartphone users are spending more and more time online, having an app can increase your business visibility because phone users tend to keep in mind things and images they see regularly.

Customer loyalty: Mobile apps allow businesses to communicate directly with the customers and therefore enhance customer loyalty, through in-app purchases, ads, promotion, and notifications.

A viable marketing tool: No need to print big brochures to hang on the streets, you can immediately inform your customers about promotional offers through pushed notifications. Within the app, they are able to reach the registering/booking form, newsfeed, account, and other valuable functions.

Source of data and information: Businesses can use data of apps users to analyze their preferences and behaviors while making buying decisions. It has the foresight in increasing sales and improving UX (users experience)

B. The fundamentals of mobile app development

1. What is mobile app development?

There can be several definitions for this term, however, according to Wikipedia (and in general): “Mobile app development is the act or process by which a mobile app is developed for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These applications can be pre-installed on phones during manufacturing platforms, or delivered as web applications using server-side or client-side processing (e.g., JavaScript) to provide an “application-like” experience within a Web browser.”

2. Step to start

Building an app includes many tasks to be done. And of course, time, money, and effort are required. When getting started with mobile apps, you should be well prepared or else brand-damaging and pricey consequences may occur.  Briefly, you may have your clear idea and goals, then you need to start with market researches. After having your app well designed, you need to test then get feedback quickly to tackle the imperfection. In this article, we have listed 9 steps to start with your mobile app.

3. Platforms

As we’ve always mentioned, choosing the most suitable platform for either your e-Commerce website or your mobile app is like building the most solid foundation for your house. When it comes to mobile app development, the fear of coding may prevent you from getting started. However, with some platforms, coding knowledge and experiences are almost unrequired.

• Apperi.io

Appery is a cloud-based mobile app builder that you can use to create apps for Android or iOS, and it includes Apache Cordova (Phone Gap), Ionic, and jQuery Mobile with access to its built-in components.

Since the builder runs in the cloud, there’s nothing to install or download, and it’s easy to get started quickly. The Appery app builder includes a visual editor using drag and drop components to build the UI. Appery auto-generates the code for any components you drop in. You can connect to any REST API and use it in your app, and instantly add a cloud database and backend to your app if you need to store data.

You can add powerful functionality with the Appery plugin catalog, or create your own custom private plugins to use in your apps. If you’re working with a team, you can easily share your project with them and collaborate in real-time for an extra fee.

Price: Plans start at $60/month for Pro, $135/month for Team, and custom pricing for enterprise solutions.

• Mobile roadie

Mobile Roadie is a mobile app development platform that allows anyone to create and manage their own iOS or Android app. Even better, the building happens in a very visual way. The platform supports all media types, with automatic importing of RSS, Twitter, or Google News keywords, and an auto-refreshing fan wall for real-time communication with users.

You can preview your app accurately via Mobile Roadie’s back end, just as your users would on their devices. They will also guide you through the App Store submission process, with Mobile Roadie checking the quality and appropriateness of your content.

This app builder also gives you the option to send out push notifications. This can be content from your own site or via the platform itself. The platform as a whole is language-agnostic, so you can pull data in a variety of formats, including XML, JSON, PHP, CSV, and HTML. When you start, you are presented with several layout options, but you can also customize any of them to your liking. I will say that Mobile Roadie seems better fit for a brand or service, rather than a product.

Price: Pricing available upon request.

• Others:

TheAppBuilder:  suitable if you are designing an app as an intranet for a company. Pricing available upon request.

Good Barber: Build iOS and Android apps, this platform has several customizable design templates for you to start, without any code line. Plans start at $32/months for Android apps and $96/month for iOS apps.

4. Tools for mobile app development

There are so many app development tools that can make your head spin, however, it is vital to choose the most suitable one that works for you. There are several types of tools, serving different requirements: open-source tools, hybrid  & cross-platform tools, native tools, Windows tools, etc…These are one of the best open source app dev tools:

• BuildFire.js: 

When mentioning mobile app development tools, it’s hard not to talk about BuildFire.js – a cross platform library used to build custom functionality on BuildFire’s platform. It allows unlimited customization with no requirements but Javascript, making it one of the simplest to implement frameworks. Leveraging the existing functionality of the BuildFire platform, BuidFire.js gives the developers the ability to cut 45% of the app developing process by leveraging any of the existing 45+ open-source plugins and simply focus on the custom functionality that is required.

• Frame work 7: 

Frame work 7 used to be iOS-only, but now it has become available for Android. If you want to build an app on Android that has the look and feels like one on iOS, Frame work 7 is for you.

Also, if you have a quite decent knowledge of CSS, HTML or Javascript, this tool could be very easy to understand. Some features of Frame work 7 include Material Design UX, a custom DOM library, 1:1 page animations, native scrolling,…

• jQuery Mobile:

Over half of all mobile websites are currently using jQuery Mobile. It can be considered as one of the oldest tools and has more functionality than most. It’s been called the “swiss army knife of mobile app dev tools”. While jQuery brings all the well-known JavaScript features to the table, the ‘Mobile’ part of the upgrade is mostly responsible for CSS and HTML. While it lacks native-like functionality or advanced UI, it makes up for this by being as close as possible to the “write once, run everywhere” dream.

The setback of open source, however, often includes a steeper learning curve than some of their paid counterparts. If you have the time to learn them, it may be worth saving the extra dollars.

In conclusion, there are more mobile app development platforms and tools nowadays than we can ever count. They can vary in price, ability, complexity,… which can confuse you. So it’s better to understand your needs to choose the most suitable ones that do not waste your time and money.

C. Thinking of building an app? Choose a qualified software outsource company – CO-WELL Asia

Waking up with a bunch of great ideas about mobile apps is great but only when it comes to reality with a logo on users’ phone, you can get benefits from it. Building an app on your own could be overwhelming and even impossible if you lack technological knowledge and experience. So think about having a software outsource company to do this for you. 

CO-WELL Asia ranks the 5th position in top Viet Nam mobile app development companies on Clutch. More than 70 successful projects have given us the confidence to guarantee that your creative software/website idea will result in a market triumph. Our engineers strive for excellence in their technological expertise to create market-leading websites and applications with AR-VR experiences, 3D designs, 360 images, and other advanced technologies.