mobile development choices: native apps vs. web apps at jax 2011
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Mobile Development Choices: Native Apps vs. Web Apps at JAX 2011 conferenceTRANSCRIPT
Mobile Development Choices: Native Apps vs. Web Apps
Max Katz, Exadel
May 4, 2011
Exadel
Max Katz
● Senior Systems Engineer at Exadel
● JSF, RichFaces, Java EE consulting, and training
● Manages exadel.org – Exadel's open source projects and community
● Community manager for gotiggr.com – tool for creating and sharing interactive web and mobile HTML prototypes
Exadel
Author of Practical RichFaces
(Apress)
4
Lead-author of Practical RichFaces, 2/e
(Apress, June 2011)
Summer 2011
Exadel
Published April 11, 2011
Exadel
mkblog.exadel.com
@maxkatz
Exadel
Exadel is a global software engineering company.● Founded in 1998,
headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area
● 7 development offices in Europe
● 350+ employees
Exadel
5
Minsk
Homyel
Kharkov
Donetsk
Ekaterinburg
Moscow
Exadel Offices
Munich
Exadel
Open Source with JBoss
Exadel
Exadel Products● Open Source with JBoss
◦ RichFaces
◦ JBoss Tools/JBoss Developer Studio
● exadel.org
◦ Flamingo
◦ Fiji
◦ jsf4birt
◦ JavaFX Plug-in for Eclipse
● gotiggr.com– build and share Web and mobile HTML prototypes
Exadel
Exadel Services
● Professional services
● Rich enterprise application development
● Eclipse development
● Custom rich component development
● Mobile development
● Training
Exadel
Building Ajax Applications with JSF 2 and New RichFaces 4
05/05/201110:15-11:15
Exadel
Source: Flickr photo by sridgway: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephanridgway/4468403556/
Let's start
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Over 4 billion phones in the
world(that's half the
population)
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2222523486/
Exadel
Forecast for total
smartphone sales in 2010: 250,000,000+
Source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2222523486/
Exadel
By 2013 mobile devices will overtake PCs as the
preferred way of accessing the Internet.
Source: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/why-a-mobile-strategy-for-retailers-matters-more-than-ever
Exadel
1. Platform
2. App discovery, monetization, support
3. User experience
4. Device features
5. Enterprise development
Exadel
Source: Flickr photo by markhillary: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhillary/514555513/
Platforms
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Where is Symbian, MeGoo?
(Fragmentation)
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Source: Flickr photo by mckaysavage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/843953060/
App discovery, monetization,
support
Exadel
App discovery
● Enter URL or search
● Web stores like Chrome App Store
● Standard App Store by placing the Web app inside a native wrapper (Hybrid App)
● App Store – proven and very popular
Native Web
Exadel
App approval
App is published to an App Store; goes through review process before being approved
Instant, no approval process; just enter the URL
Steve can't say no
Native
App approval
Web
Exadel
App installation
Downloaded from app market and installed
Open URL in a mobile browser
Create a shortcut on the phone's screen
Native Web
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App update
Updated app goes through review process, then downloaded and installed
No approval process. Just update the mobile web app and everyone gets the new version.
Native Web
Exadel
App support, maintenance, adding new features
The more platforms, the more challenging it is
Not uncommon to have different “versions” for iOS and Android
Simple (almost). Write once, deploy anywhere
Native Web
Exadel
App monetization
App Store - proven monetization strategy. Works very well
Native
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App monetization
● Each app has its own monetization strategy
● HTML App Store, like Google Chrome Web Store
● Standard App Store – putting apps inside a native wrapper/shell (Hybrid Apps)
● Selling access or token in standard App Store and then getting access to mobile app
Web
Exadel
Porting to new platform
● Build once, run anywhere (almost)
● Tweak the UI to fit platform
● Difference in browsers and supported features
Native Web● Need to learn another
mobile platform
● Learn platform's UI approach
Exadel
Source: Flickr photo by jpctalbot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laserstars/908946494/
User experience
Exadel
Speed
Faster for some UI functions, especially when heavy graphics are involved
HTML5/JavaScript rendering bring performance “almost” on par with native
Native Web
Exadel
User experience
● Very fast
● UI effects
● More developed UI “logic”
● Can be “very good”
● For example, an app like Gmail
● Will continue to improve and get better.
Native Web
Exadel
Exadel
Exadel
User perception
Many associate mobile apps with native apps today
Will be improvingNative Web
Exadel
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanberdoo/510894918/
Devicefeatures
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Native Web
Video/audio Built-in HTML5
Off line Possible HTML5
Full screen Built-inHiding browser
address bar
Accelerometer Built-in HTML5
Push Possible Possible (HTML5)
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Off line, connectivity
● Speed:
◦ EDGE (slow)
◦ 3G (faster)
◦ 4G (very fast)
◦ WiFi (very fast)
● Users “don't like” to see the browser loading
● More OK with native app loading
Native and Web
Exadel
Integration with phone services
Full access to phone services:
● Contacts
● Calendar
Limited; but more and more apps get data from the cloud
Do you really need access?
Native Web
Exadel
Integration with phone hardware
Full integration with phone hardware
● Camera/Video
● GPS
Some support via
HTML5 is now available for camera/video
Native Web
Exadel
5
Source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2889019945/
Enterprise
Exadel
● iOS (Objective C)
● Android (Java)
● BlackBerry (Java)
● webOS (HTML/JavaScript)
● Windows Phone (Silverlight, .NET)
Plus, every platform has its own approach to UI development
Native
Developer skills
Exadel
HTML, JavaScript, CSS
But, training is needed to adapt exiting HTML/JavaScript/CSS skills to mobile development
Web
Developer skills
Exadel
Expensive, as still relatively small number of developers master mobile development skills
Native
Cost
Exadel
● Can be significantly cheaper
● Large number of developers already posses HTML, JavaScript, CSS skills
● But, some training might be needed to learn how to
develop UI for mobile apps
Cost
Web
Exadel
Every platform has its own SDK:
● iOS (Objective C)
● Android (Java)
● BlackBerry (Java)
● webOS (HTML/JavaScript)
● Windows Phone (Silverlight, .NET)
Native
Mobile development frameworks
Exadel
A number of options available today for building Web mobile apps:
● Take “do it yourself approach”
● Adapt any existing framework to work on mobile web
● jQuery Mobile
● Sencha
Web
Mobile development frameworks
Exadel
A number of tools to build hybrid apps:
● Tiggr Mobile (coming up, demo)
● PhoneGap
● Open plug
● Adobe Flex Mobile
● Titanium Appcelerator
● Corona SDK
Hybrid
Mobile development frameworks
Exadel
Existing infrastructure could be reused but also need service layer to communicate between client (mobile) and server
● REST
● SOAP
● Hessian
● Protocol Buffers
Native
Server integration
Exadel
For the most part, existing infrastructure can be reused
Web
Server integration
Exadel
Time to market
● Slow, unless have access to experts
● Need strong experts; hard to find
● Number of platforms supported
● Can be fast
Native Web
Exadel
http://gotiggr.com
Exadel
● Build and share interactive HTML prototypes
● Highly-interactive, define events/actions
● View, test in any browser, get feedback
Tiggr Prototypes Tiggr Mobile● First of a kind, Web-
based IDE for building and deploying hybrid mobile apps
● Connect and invoke remote services
Exadel
Tiggr Mobile Demo*http://gotiggr.com
*Preview version
Exadel
Device Access
Speed App Store ApprovalUpdate,
new features
Cost
Full Very fast Available RequiredCan be
challenging$$$
Some Fast Possible None Easy $
Native
Web
Exadel
Device Access
Speed App Store ApprovalUpdate,
new features
Cost
Full Very fast Available RequiredCan be
challenging$$$
FullCan be
very fastAvailable Required Easy $
Some Fast Possible None Easy $
Native
Web
Hybrid
Exadel
● Does everything need a native app? “App overload”
● Do you want users to download an app for anything they do on mobile devices?
◦ Not uncommon to download and never use an app
● Do you need access to device features?
Other things to consider
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Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drachmann/327122302/
Anything I missed?
Exadel
● Games
● Full access to device features
● Very high performance
● Specialized apps with rich graphics
● Targeting just one platform
● Off line
● Support all or most platforms
● Easy update, maintenance
● Time to market
● Cost
Native Web/Hybrid
Exadel
There is no right answer.
Flickr photo by faungg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534236@N00/3255156612/
> Target audience
> App features
> Resources (skills, time, money)
> Mobile platforms
Exadel
Flick photo by Arts Comments: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artcomments/382732967/
History repeats itself?
