Drawing Comparisons Between Mobile Cloud & Native Apps

Bangalore: The discussion among developers on whether mobile cloud applications are better than native mobile applications or vice versa is never ending. With the numerous benefits and capabilities of both the platform, it becomes hard for them especially the ones who are about to make an entry into the mobile applications space to make a decision.

Bill Claybook on techtarget.com said, in order for a developer to understand which is better it is important for them to look at the differences in developing these apps. Web-based application development is a quick way for developers to target multiple devices while native mobile application development provides a developer access to the vast capabilities available on a particular platform.

When it comes to the look, there are not many visible differences. However, with regards to the development there are some visible differences. Unlike mobile cloud apps, native mobile applications have the capability to provide notifications. Furthermore, mobile cloud apps can access the on-device features only through Application Programming Interfaces or APIs which bridges the gap between the cloud application and the mobile devices. While native mobile apps have direct access to the features available on the mobile devices.  

There is also a significant difference in the speed between the two types of applications. Mobile cloud applications are usually slower when compared to native mobile applications as they are dependent on the device browser.

The programming language for native apps depends on the type of mobile application platform. Android developers use Java, Objective-C for iOS and  Windows Mobile use Visual C++ to develop their respective applications. HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, PHP, Rails and Python are mainly used for developing Mobile Cloud applications.  

Before you can decide on which type of application to build, it is important if you can keep a few things in mind: your target audience, your business objective, which programming language are you proficient, the importance of speed and performance.