Mobility

Interests \ Computing \ Mobility

Mobility: Computing on the Go

Staying with the Shift

Over the last couple of decades, there's been a major shift in computing from the desktop to mobile devices, particularly tablets and phones. I was working with Blackberries when we started trying to push IBM Notes data through them and I moved onto the iPhones for versions 4-6. I can't say I was particularly happy being locked into their itunes based ecosystem and I jumped to Android as soon as I possibly could.

There's a few different options for developing for phones and tablets and for the most part we try to keep our options open.

Dedicated Apps

It's actually quite rare that we'll go down the route of a dedicated app these days. To do this generally means that you have to develop (and maintain) an app for Android and an app for iOS. Additionally, depending upon the phone ecosystem, you often find yourself having to redevelop the app for subsequent OS updates or to hand new screen sizes and features.

While it may be fine for the likes of Google and Microsoft, developing dedicated apps generally isn't cost effective for small businesses.

Responsive Pages

Responsive pages is, in some ways, the lazy option for developing for mobiles but it's also the most cost effective. Develop one app and make it run in a standard environment (the web) and make it behave differently depending upon the screen size.

There's a lot of great technology around for this but my favourite is Bootstrap, especially when combined with FontAwesome.

There are also some great responsive design models (and tools) that you can follow:

App Runtime Tools and App Builders

App runtime tools are becoming more readily available but I'm not entirely convinced that there's a great cross-platform market for them. The one that we use a bit is PowerApps which lets you develop for Web, iOS and Android at more or less the same time.

The problem with these runtime tools is that the user is often required to install a runtime, such as PowerApps before they can use your app. Since installation is not smooth, usage is considerably lower. If these apps start to become fully compiled, maybe we'll see usage grow.