Aptus Consultants

I could go on, but you get the picture. This does not sound like "Lego" development does it?

Some application developers have tried to minimise the burden of these issues by concentrating on just one platform, or even just one device. While that reduces the difficulty and the cost, it also reduces the size of your potential userbase by cutting down the number of devices you support.

So what's the alternative?

Find a service that takes away the pain of coding for each platform and its problems, and makes it easy to deliver apps to the devices.

Let's take a look at a small selection of services that address some of these problems in different ways.

Rhomobile and Rhodes

Rhomobile allow Ruby and HTML developers to build powerful mobile apps:

"Rhodes is an open source framework to rapidly build native apps for all major smartphone operating systems (iPhone, Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Android). These are true native device applications (NOT mobile web apps) which work with synchronized local data and take advantage of device capabilities such as GPS, PIM contacts and camera."

You can think of this service as a relatively productive way of building mobile apps that benefit from device-specific capabilities (such as the camera) and access to web services, while supporting a wide range of smartphone devices.

Kyte

Kyte is all about video, so the Kyte Platform addresses specific vertical sectors (such as Music, TV and Consumer Brand Marketing) and provides a seamless integration between web and mobile experiences:

"Kyte provides powerful mobile production and distribution capabilities, enabling you to engage more often and in multiple ways with your audience. With Kyte’s mobile capabilities you can produce authentic, live or on-demand content, delivered in real-time to both Internet and mobile audiences, allowing you to build community, brand affiliation and loyalty through interactive, online and mobile audience participation."

In contrast to Rhomobile, this service aims to provide a mobile experience as part of a wider set of internet services. It supports a relatively small set of devices, but illustrates a "specialist" approach that contrasts with the "generalist" Rhomobile.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is another generalist that seeks to make mobile apps more accessible to developers familiar with HTML and JavaScript.

"PhoneGap is an open source development tool for building fast, easy mobile apps with JavaScript.

If you’re a web developer who wants to build mobile applications in HTML and JavaScript while still taking advantage of the core features in the iPhone, Android and Blackberry SDKs, PhoneGap is for you."

This service is closer to Rhomobile than Kyte, but targets a different development skillset and a smaller range of devices.

Mobile Entree

A different class of services aim to make it easier to offer established web-technologies on mobile devices. Mobile Entree does this for SharePoint.

"Mobile Entrée provides comprehensive SharePoint functionality on your SmartPhone with minimal configuration and no custom development needed. "

There are other similar services out there, and they have different strengths and weaknesses. Your choice of service will be determined by the skills of your development team, the devices of your audience and the features you want to offer on mobile.

Have you built mobile apps the hard way or the easy way?

What was your experience?