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What is mobile development ?

What is mobile development

Mobile development describes the processes and procedures required for writing software for mobile devices, such as smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets.

The evolution of mobile development

Computing today has progressively moved away from desktop computers and even laptops of past decades. Today, most computational operations are performed on mobile devices, and more than half of Internet traffic comes from smartphones, tablets and other wireless options.

As computing continues its transition from fixed to mobile , the demand for software that works efficiently on mobile devices grows. But that means going beyond just building apps for mobile devices – organizations need to be able to develop applications that not only work on mobile devices, but also make the most of their unique features.

To fully meet this need, more and more companies are relying on mobile development.

What are the main mobile development platforms?

To run an application, your mobile device must have a working operating system. The operating system acts as a link between the computer hardware and the programs it runs, facilitating interaction. The operating system ensures that the software processes running on the computer have access to relevant resources and can function as expected.

A mobile development platform is essentially an operating system designed to build, test, and deploy applications for mobile development devices. While there have historically been numerous mobile development platforms, today the market is contested by two main competitors: Android and iOS.

Android

Android is the largest mobile development platform, accounting for around 80% of the market share. This is because Android is an open source operating system that can run in different versions on many types of devices from different manufacturers. Supported by Google and based on Linux, Android allows anyone to produce hardware that can support the operating system. The same is true for Android application development: developers and developers have full autonomy to create apps for Android devices, which results in greater app flexibility and an extremely low barrier to entry.

Google provides native tools for developing applications for Android mobile devices, including Android Studio . In addition, the open source nature of the operating system allows third-party providers to build Android development tools on their own. Google’s extensive development guidelines help ensure that the developed application works flawlessly on many different types of hardware. However, given that the number of potential Android devices is basically unlimited, there is no way to be sure that new applications will work perfectly in every situation and with all types of hardware.

iOS

Although iOS accounts for only 18% of the market share, it is arguably the predominant platform between the two. The iOS operating system is owned by Apple, the company that has been most responsible for introducing mobile computing into the everyday fabric thanks to the advent of iPhone and iPad technologies.

The reason iOS doesn’t extend to many devices like Android is that it’s not an open source model – iOS works exclusively on Apple products. Similarly, to develop applications for iOS, you need to use a Mac computer with OS X (the standard Mac operating system).

Apple provides native libraries and tools for mobile development: Development teams are encouraged to use Swift , Apple’s programming language.

Since Apple maintains tight control over the hardware and software aspects of iOS development, iOS performance is typically very responsive, stable, and easy to use. Device fragmentation is also less of a problem, as Apple only authorizes its applications to run on proprietary hardware. On the other hand, stricter guidelines can result in a greater difficulty in developing fully customized apps – any new iOS applications must be submitted to the App Store for review and approval.

Other platforms

All other mobile development platforms currently in circulation share the remaining 2% of the market share. These include the Windows and BlackBerry development platforms, but nearly all mobile development teams choose to focus their efforts on Android, iOS, or a combination of the two.

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