Xamarin: The Ultimate Ruler of Cross Platform Mobile App DevelopmentPosted by Sphinx Solution on March 2nd, 2023 ![]() Creating mobile apps are an art – an art of expression, an art of imagination, an art of compassion and an art of excellence. Nevertheless, still there happen to be many app developers writing native iOS or Android codes for app development. Are you in deep love with the platform specific programming language and tools, is it due to skill set issue, the need for an application or it is just an ignorance? Wake up! It is high time to re-evaluate your approach towards mobile app development. According to the Statista, total mobile app downloads in 2016 were around 140.68 billion; in 2021, it crossed the mark of 230 billion downloads. Due to the increased demand for mobile apps, the mobile app development industry is looking for new ways of delivering excellent mobile applications swiftly without compromising with the quality and outcome of the app. The Reign of Native Apps Native apps are platform specific, needing independent development for different platforms. For example, an iOS native mobile app is developed using Objective-C and XCode, whereas Android native apps are developed using Java and Eclipse. The optimised performance and the quality viewing experience are delivered by native apps due to the inbuilt features of the particular OS. Introduction of Cross-Platform Apps Mobile app development companies looking out for options to develop crisp apps found solace in Cross-platform software, which offered a flexible, and an efficient alternative to the native apps. The journey of cross-platform app development started with Titanium and the PhoneGap surfaced. Eventually, so many web technology based frameworks came into existence and started serving to some extent. Unfortunately, these web technologies were cursed with severe limitations against object-oriented Objective-C and Java on Android. Inversely, Microsoft technologies were capable of delivering the same, but C# relieved everyone by meeting the expectations of app developers. Xamarin introduced in 2011 assuaged cross-platform mobile app developers, as people were willing to develop cross-platform mobile apps using Xamarin. What is Xamarin? Founded based on Mono, an open source realization of .NET Framework, Xamarin is an effective tool that seamlessly translates code written in C# into native codes for popular mobile platforms. Microsoft later acquired Xamarin on 24 February 2015 and later on confirmed its inclusion in Microsoft Visual Studio as an open source – no extra charge program. Xamarin Basics
Pros of using Xamarin Code for All Mobile Platforms in a Single Technology Stack
App Performance is Similar to Native
Native User Experience
Integrated Hardware Support
Cons of using Xamarin Delayed Support to the Latest Updates Although, Xamarin claims to provide same-day support, expect some delays from Xamarin to support for the latest iOS, Android releases. After all, you need to have some time at hand to implement the changes and/or introduce new plugins. Open Source Libraries – Limited Access If native app development makes aggressive use of open source technologies, you just have to depend on the platform specific components along with DotNet open source resources available for both users and consumers. ON the contrary, thousands of custom UI controls, various charts, graphs, themes, and other powerful features are available as Xamarin components to be added in an app in few clicks. Such components include Beacons and wearables integration, Built-in payment processing (such as Stripe); innovative push notification services, enhanced capabilities for multimedia streaming, solutions related to cloud storage and much more. Problems Related to Xamarin Ecosystem Xamarin is a new technology made available for cross-platform app development; it has a significantly smaller developer community, which makes it hard to find an experienced and hard skilled Xamarin developer. Although Microsoft is fueling the efforts to enhance the community strength, it is only about 10% of the total mobile app development community. Nevertheless, the smaller Xamarin developer community offers extensive support to its developers. Xamarin University is a dedicated educational platform that offers many resources and helpful training to the new engineers joining this community. Conclusion Although sufficient basic facts related to Xamarin are provided in the blog, pros and cons mentioned here can be considered as collateral damage. Due to the code sharing, use of single technology stacks, efficiency, native-like app performance, reduce the engineering cost and time to market, many entrepreneurs and startups chose Xamarin mobile app development platform. Based on our experience, it is better to consider Xamarin for the enterprise mobile development solutios. Only 5 to 10% effort is needed by developers to customize the platform due to standard UI covering 90% of the projects along with the convenient functionality to share all the core product logic easily. If you plan to develop a consumer-facing app having arduous UI, then the amount of shared code is drastically reduced, wherein Xamarin cross-platform mobile app development fails to render its major benefit; equaling the time and cost required to develop a native app. For additional information on other cross-platform app development frameworks, you can read our blog COMPARISON OF TOP FOUR CROSS PLATFORM APP DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS here Check out some of our cross platform apps Tupper Club TupperClub offers you the chance to meet with some friends in groups and organize to eat every day cooking only one dish per person and week. After cooking each member his recipe, the tuppers are shared among all group so everyone has a different dish for every day. This way, each member of the group has to cook only once a week of saving time. Sounds good…right.
The Kiloss app helps you plan your diet individually. You can plan your Kiloss days according to your personal needs. The app shows you your successes. With Kiloss, you will lose weight and save a lot of time and money. The Kiloss app also includes a drinking reminder. Seekmi Seekmi’s mobile application helps Indonesians save time and money! Thousands of Indonesians have already used Seekmi to hire AC technicians, personal trainers, handymen, cooking lesson instructors, and everything else. Seekmi allows Indonesians to order over 500 different services, all in one app! What is your biggest challenge in selecting a platform to develop an App, share your questions below, we will try to share the best solution of your specific need? Like it? Share it!More by this author |