So you want a mobile app for your business, great! Now what?
Find out what all these mobile apps are about, technology they use, and what they’re good for in our interesting slideshow!
2. Types of mobile apps out there
Apps that use only HTML5 code (HTML, CSS, and
Javascript) and no native device features or APIs.
Web apps can run in a browser anywhere on any
device, desktop, server, etc. Web apps may also be
“packaged,” meaning the web-runtime environment
is bundled with the app and thus can be distributed
to a mobile device through app stores.
~ http://www.wired.com/2013/11/responsive-html5-apps-write-
once-run-anywhere-where-is-anywhere/
Web App
3. Types of apps out there
HTML5 apps that utilize native device features, such
as a camera or accelerometer, and use device APIs
such as Apache* Cordova (cordova.org).
These apps are also “packaged” for distribution by the
various app stores.
~ http://www.wired.com/2013/11/responsive-html5-apps-write-
once-run-anywhere-where-is-anywhere/
Hybrid App
4. Types of apps out there
A native mobile app is a smartphone application that is
coded in a specific programming language, such as
Objective C for iOS and Java for Android operating
systems.
Native mobile apps provide fast performance and a
high degree of reliability. They also have access to a
phone's various devices, such as its camera and
address book. In addition, users can use some apps
without an Internet connection. However, this type of
app is expensive to develop because it is tied to one
type of operating system, forcing the company that
creates the app to make duplicate versions that work
on other platforms.
~ http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27568/native-mobile-app
Native App
5. PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open source framework for quickly building cross-platform
mobile apps using HTML5, Javascript and CSS.
Building applications for each device–iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and
more–requires different frameworks and languages. PhoneGap solves this by
using standards-based web technologies to bridge web applications and mobile
devices. Since PhoneGap apps are standards compliant, they’re future-proofed to
work with browsers as they evolve.
via phonegap.com
7. Cordova
Apache Cordova is a set of device APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access
native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript.
Combined with a UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or Dojo Mobile or Sencha
Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript.
When using the Cordova APIs, an app can be built without any native code (Java,
Objective-C, etc) from the app developer. Instead, web technologies are used, and
they are hosted in the app itself locally (generally not on a remote http server).
And because these JavaScript APIs are consistent across multiple device platforms and
built on web standards, the app should be portable to other device platforms with
minimal to no changes.
Apps using Cordova are still packaged as apps using the platform SDKs, and can be
made available for installation from each device's app store. Read more at
http://cordova.apache.org/