An Analysis of Mobile Application Development Methodologies

Abstract

Looking at the trend over the past few years, it is clear that the need for mobile applications will only get larger from here on out. It is estimated that by the year 2020, mobile apps will generate $188.9 billion in global revenue via app stores and in-app advertising. For the longest time, there has been a significant barrier to entry in order to develop efficiently on multiple platforms. Apps targeted at multiple platforms needed a large development team, coding knowledge in a plethora of different languages, access to specialized hardware necessary for each platform and a significant amount of time. Cross-platform frameworks have attempted to solve a lot of these problems by allowing developers to code in common languages and deploy across multiple platforms, thereby reducing the initial investment and time spent developing. The downside then is that these apps are too generalized, offering a quick but inelegant solution in the long run. React Native attempts to be the perfect middle ground, offering native-like performance and UI along with the ease and efficiency of writing once and running everywhere. The mobile landscape changes faster than most people can even comprehend, but for now - this is the future of mobile app development.