As more and more businesses are seeking to capitalize on the fastest-growing market, mobile app development is gaining immense popularity. It was recorded by Statista that around 3.48 million mobile apps were available on the Google Play Store while approx 2.22 million apps were available on the App Store in the year 2021. Now, with the increased demand and popularity, the numbers will be increasing at a faster rate.
However, the right mobile app development approach is important to ensure the growth and success of your particular business. There are certain factors to be considered while choosing the right approach for mobile app development such as business objectives, requirements, and prior tasks. Nowadays, it is possible to get your mobile app built in 4 major ways for both iOS and Android, such as –
- Native Mobile App Development
- Cross Platform Development
- Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
- Hybrid App Development
Now, if you want to gain more insight into the native mobile app development, and its pros, and cons, then you have come to the right page!
What is Native Mobile App Development?
Native app development means developing a mobile app with certain tools and programming languages exclusively for a single platform. For instance, a native Android app is built with Kotil or Java, while a native iOS app is built with Objective-C and Swift. Businesses prefer a native approach to reach their target audience while engaging the customers. Furthermore, it offers a seamless and more responsive user experience as compared to other ways.
Pros of Mobile App Development:
Native mobile app development offers a range of benefits to businesses and users. Here are the pros of choosing native mobile app development,
- Faster Performance:
Native apps are built for any specific platform, thus they can deliver faster performance, quicker load times, and smooth animations than web or hybrid app development. It can even help to enhance app retention rates.
- Offline Accessibility:
It is easy to gain offline access to certain features of mobile apps, which is useful for people who live in a region where there is limited or no internet access. It helps to increase the app usage and improve the user experience.
- Ease Access to APIs and Other Features:
Native mobile apps offer accessibility to a wide range of device features and APIs which include, GPS, camera, microphone, and even notifications. This helps mobile app developers to create more innovative and cutting-edge features such as push notifications, augmented reality, and location-based services.
- Improved Security:
Native mobile apps offer enhanced security than hybrid or web apps, as they involve platform-specific security features i.e. encrypted storage biometric authentication. It prevents unauthorized access to data.
Cons of Native Mobile App Development:
With many benefits of native app development, there are certain challenges that are faced by developers. Here are the cons of native mobile app development:
- Platform-specific Development:
Native mobile app development is done on a specific platform such as Android or iOS, thus there’s a need to create separate code bases. This can increase the development cost along with the time. Also, it requires expertise in working with different development tools and programming languages.
- Compatibility and Fragmentation Issues:
With native app development, the device and platform versions cause compatibility and fragmentation issues. Developers need to test different devices and their versions followed by optimization, which increases the cost and time.
- Maintenance and Upgrades:
Native mobile apps need regular maintenance and upgrades to ensure that they are compatible with the latest versions. It requires a significant effort from the developers especially if there’s a need to support multiple platform versions.
- Development Cost:
Native mobile app development is more expensive than hybrid or web app development due to the required expertise in different platform-specific tools and programming languages. This can significantly increase the cost and time in overall app development.
To Wrap Up
Considering the pros and cons of mobile app development is vital to make the most of native mobile app development. Businesses should also consider the requirements, budget, and target audience to create the most intuitive, engaging, and effective mobile apps. By leveraging the capabilities and features of native apps, businesses can stand ahead of the competition, drive growth and engage with their target customers.
