Authors:
Henning Heitkötter
;
Sebastian Hanschke
and
Tim A. Majchrzak
Affiliation:
University of Münster, Germany
Keyword(s):
App, Mobile application, Cross-platform, Multi-platform.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Internet Technology
;
Multimedia and User Interfaces
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
;
Web Interfaces and Applications
;
Web Programming
;
Web Services and Web Engineering
Abstract:
While smartphones are rapidly gaining popularity, they do not (yet) rely on a standardized platform. At least
five operating systems are considered important. Developing mobile applications (apps) is thus challenging.
Since native development for several platforms requires extreme effort, we designed criteria to assess crossplatform
development approaches. We applied our criteria to Web apps, to apps developed with PhoneGap
and Titanium Mobile, and – for comparison – to natively developed apps. Particularly the two frameworks
are interesting from a Web developer’s perspective since they bridge the gap between Web development and
mobile information systems. Our findings are presented as reference tables. Furthermore, we generalize our
results. Our criteria have proven to be viable for follow-up evaluations. With regard to the approaches, we
specifically found PhoneGap viable if very close resemblance of a native look & feel can be neglected.