Launching a new app in the market is no longer as simple as it used to be even a couple of years ago. With so many different operating systems effective in the Smartphone arena these days, deciding on where to launch an app has become really difficult for developers. The choices developers have in their hands are iPhone, Android, Windows, Blackberry and some other platforms. Of these, the major players in the market are the two platforms of iPhone and Android. The entire app market throughout the world is dominated by Android and iOS with more than 50,000 apps designed for each platform. So, it is obvious that developers who intend to secure maximum exposure for their apps would target either of these two platforms.

In the present competitive market scenario, developing mobile apps is quite a challenge in itself. With a handful of companies that are known to be efficient in executing such tasks very well, building and marketing some new app is not an easy job. The major concern that developers have to face when deciding to develop a new app is which phone or platform would allow them to reach out to more number of target audiences. No developer can rest assured with an extremely well-designed app, for which there are no takers. Ultimately, the app has to make its way to the users to become popular and widely accepted.

There is a huge demand for latest apps among users; which is always on the rise. To meet this ever growing demand, developers need to choose a platform that allows them faster development and quicker promotion of a mobile app. In order to ensure quick delivery of app, it is but obvious that developers would look for a platform that allows easy development of mobile apps. Another thing programmers have to decide on is whether they want their apps to be developed for one particular platform or make it capable of running on multiple mobile platforms? In case they want their apps to boast of cross-platform compatibility, the road ahead is more challenging for them.

When it comes to maximum reach, iPhone has been the ruler. Throughout the world, most Smartphone users prefer using iPhone. But the trends of this market keep on changing. As per a report published some years ago, Android was predicted to become one of the most popular operating systems and it surely has emerged to be so. With the huge number of free and engaging apps that works best on Android, this platform now tops the preference list of many Smartphone users. So, it is very hard on the part of a developer to decide on which platform must be selected for his/her Smartphone app development.

In a bid to decipher both the platforms and understand which one allows easy app development, let us first take a look at the programming languages. Android has its foundation in Java. So, all apps that are written for Android are scripted in the Java programming language. There are scores of developers who have made their entire career based on Java. For developers who are extremely skilled and proficient in Java, making apps for Android seems to be their ideal option.

On the other hand, apps that are compatible with iPhone are written in Objective-C, a dialect of the well-known common language ‘C’. Objective-C is a strict and small superset language of C, so any developer who has worked on C and C++ can certainly learn to work on Objective-C. They won’t find it difficult to pick up this language, even though there are chances of coming across some roadblocks; which is very normal. So, both the platform allows easy development of mobile apps, depending on the knowledge the developer possesses. It might be definitely difficult for a Java developer to suddenly develop apps that require writing codes in Objective-C, and similar would be the case if a C programmer is asked to work on Java.

Since, iOS works on Objective-C; it doesn’t allow Java to run on iPhone. This means developing apps that can run only on Android cannot run on iOS and vice versa. So, choosing either of the platforms for Smartphone app development means losing out on the target audience of the other platform, which is obviously not a feasible option for developers. After all, the app being developed would only have partial market exposure. Therefore, what can be done in such a scenario to tap in the user base of both Android and iOS? This is where cross-platform compatibility steps in.

It is a matter of the past that developers had to create apps in the native language for each device. With the invention of various new tool kits and development platforms, it is no longer necessary for programmers to learn Objective-C in order to create applications for iPhone. Appcelerator’s Titanium, Nitobi’s PhoneGap, Ansca’s Corona and Rhomobile’s Rhodes are some of the popular toolkits that allow developers to create apps that support multiple platforms. So, ‘one-size fits all’ solution is right there for developers to adopt.

However, these runtime layers and emulators are also not free from issues. Since, these are relatively new; they are not always fully featured. These frameworks work best in case of simple applications that access the Web and bring back information to the phone. Conversely, mobile apps that depend on heavy database access and intense calculations cannot work perfectly with these frameworks. So, whether developers go for specific apps relying on native languages or take cross-platform compatibility into account, there can be equal amount of challenge and trouble involved in both the cases.

Nonetheless, there is one advantage with Apple’s iOS in comparison to Google’s Android. Using Objective-C and Cocoa, any developer can create simple applications very easily on iOS. Moreover, there are series of APIs (Application Programming Interface) that can help developers in gaining access to hardware devices such as camera and sensor. On the other hand, developing decent looking apps on Android is always more tough than building the same in iOS. Thus, if programmers are looking for a platform where they can develop mobile apps easily, iOS might offer an easier opportunity to do so.

About Author:
Kristina Louis is a Freelance content writer and writes on behalf of www.qaitdevlabs.com. She likes writing blogs and posts on Mobile Apps Development .Kristina have written a number of articles for various web-sites.