Overview of Popular Mobile Apps Development Platforms
A rapid increase is noted in the number of companies investing in mobile app development. But the frequent changes in technologies and user choices have made mobile application development both complex and time-consuming. Also, most organizations want to build apps by targeting smartphones, tablets, PDAs and other portable digital devices running on different platforms. At the same time, many enterprises even use cross-platform mobile apps development tools to build applications by targeting multiple mobile operating systems. However, the mobile app development strategy of an organization needs to consider the popularity of individual platforms customize the development plan and strategy.
Popular Mobile Apps Development Platforms iOS
As a hugely popular mobile operating system, iOS needs no introduction. Apple has developed the proprietary and closed-source mobile operating system based on Darwin core OS. Along with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, the platforms is also being used by the second-generation Apple TV. Earlier, Apple was not allowing third-party application development. But at present iOS is one of the most popular mobile platforms among developers across the world. Most enterprises also consider iOS the best option to launch paid mobile applications.
Android: The free and open source mobile operating system is launched by Google. The earlier versions of Android were used exclusively for mobile phones. But the versions post 2.0 is used for both smartphones and tablets. Each new version of Android becomes more exciting as Google names it after sweets or dessert items. The open source nature of the operating system further contributes to the popularity of Android among major mobile service providers. According to many reports Android has captured more than 51% of the global samrtphone market.
Windows Phone: Within a very short span of time, the mobile platform developed by Microsoft has captured a substantial mobile devices market share. As a proprietary and closed-source operating system, Windows Phone is designed with an UI inspired by the Metro Design Language. Microsoft has further designed its next-generation mobile OS by integrating some of its widely used services like Office, SkyDrive, Bing, Xbox Video, Xbox Music and Xbox Live Games. At the same time, the mobile operating system also supports popular third-party services like Facebook and Google accounts.
Blackberry OS: As the name implies the closed-source and proprietary mobile operating system is from Blackberry. Despite being developed originally to facilitate business transactions on the go, the operating system is still simple and easy-to-operate. At present the platforms supports full multimedia support, along with third-party applications and services. Blackberry has further launched another operating system known as Blackberry Tablet OS. The OS is designed based on QNX, which is a commercial real-time operating system just like UNIX. Blackberry intends to use the Tablet OS mainly for its tablets (Blackberry Playbook).
Other Platforms: An enterprise also has options to build apps to target many lesser-known mobile operating systems, in addition to these major mobile application development platforms. As these platforms are developed by popular mobile device manufacturers, they are popular among the people using these devices. For instance, before being acquired by Microsoft, Nokia has launched the Asha platform to target its Asha series of mobile devices. Nokia has also developed the Symbian platform by collaborating with Accenture. Similarly, Samsung Electronics has also launched the Beda platform before switching to Android and TIzen. Qualcomm has further designed a popular mobile operating system known as Brew that runs in the background.
The rapidly growing market for mobile devices also encourages many companies to launch new mobile operating systems. An organization can get higher ROI by developing apps by targeting multiple mobile operating systems. The popularity of the cross-platform mobile apps will further remain intact despite fluctuations in the popularity a specific mobile platform. You can hire developers from top mobile apps development companies in India who can help you build mobile apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.
If you want to hire mobile application programmer for your mobile app development projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.