Xamarin Decoded: Cross Platform App Development

The second technology we would be discussing today in our post series of Cross Platform App Development is Xamarin. Mobile Applications made using Xamarin look and feel like native applications because they are. Why? Because Xamarin uses native user interfaces, APIs and provides native performance.

With the native user interface control, a developer can give an application the same look and feel that a user would expect. Apart from the interface, the application also behaves like a native app. Similarly, these apps are given a complete range of functionality as per the different platforms because of easy native API access.

Xamarin

Xamarin mobile apps also take advantage of hardware acceleration according to different platforms. This ensures native performance that is smooth and flawless.

If you choose to build your mobile application using this technology, you can deliver apps for Android, iOS and Windows using the same code, the same skills, the same development team, all in less time. This is achieved by using the same C# codebase, APIs, language and IDE for different platforms.

Pros:

• Create cross platform mobile apps using same language
• Native look, interface and performance on all platforms
• Complete use of libraries for different native platforms
• 80% Code sharing reduces development cost and time

Cons:

• UI code is not shareable
• UI coding is time consuming for different native platforms
• Xamarin developers are expensive
• All native SDK’s are required.
• Windows 8+ system required to build windows mobile app.
• Mac system required to build iOS mobile app.

These pros and cons don’t outweigh the love of developers for Xamarin. It is undoubtedly the best framework for making mobile apps for multiple operating systems. With the help of a single programming language, C#, they can include all the powerful features without having to worry about coding separately for different platforms.

The end result is, highly powerful applications for different platforms – all scalable and functional and as native as they can get. The best part about using it for app development is reduced cost and time.

To sum it all up, Xamarin is definitely a great technology to develop Android, iOS and Windows mobile apps. It is worth recommending to clients as well. If you have a project to discuss, then write to us and we will help you out!