If you are looking to have a mobile application developed, it is important to choose a development company that selects its development platforms carefully. While there are many mobile development tools available, we have found Xamarin is a highly effective, well-respected platform. Here are five reasons we have found it to be so:
#1 – Xamarin is optimized for both Android and iOS.
Yes, you may want to select just one of these operating environments for your mobile application, and you may have good reasons for doing so. But why limit yourself? If the application is going to be offered for sale, you will want to make it available to the widest possible audience. If it is going to be used internally, you may be surprised at the reluctance (and resistance) you will encounter if you insist that, say, an iPhone user use an Android phone to run that particular internal application. Xamarin doesn’t force us – or you – or your users – to compromise; it handles both platforms equally well. Those of us developing mobile applications are actually fortunate that there are really only two phone platforms. 99.6% of the new smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2016 are either Android or iOS.
#2 – There’s less code involved.
Xamarin uses a single programming language, C#, to target all platforms. In a well-structured project, much of the code can be shared between both the iOS and Android applications at once. Rather than writing two pieces of more complex code, with a shared code base less testing is necessary, fewer issues must be resolved, and less manpower is required. All of this decreases the time to market and simplifies the development process.
#3 – Xamarin is extensible.
The Xamarin Component Store allows developers to select from a multitude of components to customize their end product. As a custom application development company, this valuable resource gives us many extensions to choose from in order to meet our clients’ needs.
#4 – Microsoft owns it.
The tech giant recently acquired Xamarin, lending the power of Microsoft to the platform, and keeping Microsoft in the phone market – as a provider of developer tools – after disappointing sales of the Windows phone (the Windows smartphone operating system accounted for .3% of the market in the fourth quarter of 2016). The strength of Microsoft’s financial and technical backing of Xamarin ensures a long and robust future for the platform.
#5 – Xamarin is built on .NET.
The .NET framework has been praised for its simplicity, flexible interface, and language independence. By building on .NET, Xamarin is able to offer all these benefits, as well as offering compatibility (and in some cases transportability) with .NET-based server-side code.
There were 4.5 billion apps downloaded in 2010 alone. This number has grown since then, showing the sheer influence that applications can have on international consumers. By hiring a mobile application development company, and making sure that they use the best development platform, you can create a useful app to connect with your clients and customers. When you are considering a development company, make sure to ask them which development platforms they use.
