THE STATE OF HYBRID APPSRYAN J. SALVA

MICROSOFT

@ryanjsalva

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures.

Everett Rogers Scholar, Sociologist, Author…and all around swell guy

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Consumer AppsLate majority marketRevenue through the app storeTop priority: Premium UX

Business AppsVery early majority marketMobile apps are a cost centerDeployed to private storesTop priority: Time-to-market

Build B2E, B2B and/or B2C

CxOEnterprise ArchitectStakeholders

DevelopersSolution ArchitectsDev. Leads

IT ManagerDev. Manager

I’m interested in a (E2E) mobile app strategy

I want lower costs, everyone wants to keep costs down

We were targeting iOS, but now we need Android, Windows and…

Security is critical

I have backend data and enterprise systems to integrate

App analytics is important

Time-to-market, UX or performance is most important

I tried cross-platform 6+ months ago, but had mixed results

Hiring good iOS developers is expensive

Platform-specific teams make it difficult to coordinate features and schedule

releases

Re-training is costly. Hiring new people is even more costly.

Testing is complex and time consuming – especially Android.

Macs in the enterprise are an IT challenge (build, cost, admin)

After 400+ interviews, here’s what we’re hearing…

The most common path

Step 1

Pilot AppMost organizations begin with a pilot app either outsourced to an agency or adapted from a web app.

Pilot App

The most common path

Step 2

Bring it in-houseNext, IT departments bring a single platform (usually iOS or Android) in-house.

In-house

Step 1

Pilot App

The most common path

Step 2

In-house

Step 3

Add a platformA single platform is rarely enough. That’s when code sharing starts to become a top priority.

Add a PlatformStep 1

Pilot App

The most common path

Step 2

In-house

Step 3

Add a PlatformStep 1

Pilot App

Dev Ops

Dev OpsMature IT departments start to integrate dev ops workflows similar to those found in web today.

Magic QuadrantLEADERSCHALLENGERS

VISIONARIESNICHE PLAYERS

Microsoft

Mendix

Globe

MicroStrategy

Embarcadero

Zebra

Oracle

DSI

BackbaseAppcelerator

Xamarin

Telerik

Pegasystems

Kony

IBM

Adobe

SAPSalesForce

Appian

Com

plet

enes

s of V

ision

Ability to Execute

Ability to Execute• Product or Service• Overall Viability• Sales Execution/Pricing• Market Responsiveness/Record• Marketing Execution• Customer Experience• Operations

Completeness of Vision• Market Understanding• Marketing Strategy• Sales Strategy• Offering (Product) Strategy• Business Model• Vertical/Industry Strategy• Innovation• Geographic Strategy

Magic QuadrantLEADERSCHALLENGERS

VISIONARIESNICHE PLAYERS

Microsoft

Globe

Oracle

Telerik

Kony

IBM

Adobe

SAPSalesForce

Com

plet

enes

s of V

ision

Ability to Execute

9 of 20 are hybrid solutions• Speed-to-Market• Re-use of existing skills, assets, processes• Nearly 100% shared code• Strong ecosystem• Mature tools• Updates without re-submitting to stores

2X the Nearest CompetitorPhoneGap/Cordova

Xamarin

Unity

Qt

Adobe Air

Appcelerator

Corona

Marmelade

Codename One

Live Code

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%61%

35%

31%

18%

15%

13%

12%

9%

4%

3%

Prioritize this tool Using this tool

Vision Mobile Analysis of Cross-Platform Development, July 2015

Untappd

WeChat

Zynga Mob Wars

Swork It

Instagram

Feedly

Uber

AT&T

Apple App &Book Stores

So… yeah. It’s working for some people.

What’s your top frustration?

“Documentation is not comprehensive.”

“Documentation stays out-of-date.”

“Non-core plugins feel like hobby projects – not maintained well.”

“There’s no single authoritative source for documentation. Do I go to PhoneGap,

Cordova… somewhere else?”

“Writing a plugin is not well-documented.”

“When I built the before-mentioned carrier plugin, I want through hell. NOTHING in the documentation

worked. And yes, I chose the doc version that matched at the time my Cordova CLI.”

“Every minor version bump fucks something up.”

“Cordova just seem unstable to me. EVERYTIME I install or remove a plugin I actually make 2 or 3 folder backups (since the platforms and plugins

dirs are always on gitignore).”

Sourced from 300+ survey responses, 12 interviews, email feedback

Who’s contributing to the ecosystem?

+100s of independent contributors

Who’s contributing to the platform?

Cordova lib Android ios windows plugins0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Commits by Feature Area

MS Google Adobe Other

January February March April May June0

50

100

150

200

250

Commits Over Time

Microsoft Adobe Google Other

A global audienceCountry %India 14.21%United States 12.57%Brazil 5.34%China 4.73%France 4.52%Germany 4.3%Italy 3.74%United Kingdom 3.43%Spain 2.87%Canada 2.38%

Google Analytics for Apache Cordova, October 2015

Cordova user base is growing…

Nov-13 Feb-14 May-14 Aug-14 Nov-14 Feb-15 May-15 Aug-15

Cordova CLI monthly download count

Sourced from NPM stats, Google Analytics

Nearly 200% growth in three years

PhoneGap/Cordova

Xamarin

Unity

Qt

Adobe Air

Appcelerator

Corona

Marmelade

Codename One

Live Code

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

2015 2012

Vision Mobile Analysis of Cross-Platform Development, July 2015

State of the PlatformSourced from 300+ survey responses, 12 interviews, email feedback

What technology do you use?Sourced from 300+ survey responses

5✰ to 1✰ App Ratio

jQT jQuery Mobile

Knockout jQuery Angular Dojo Ionic Zepto.js Backbone0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2.8

3.5 3.5 3.7 3.84.1 4.2

5

5.8

Vision Mobile Analysis of Cross-Platform Development, July 2015

Cordova Summit in Redmond

Attended by Adobe, Meteor, Monaca, IBM, Intel, SalesForce & many remotely

Cordova Roadmap• Documentation and on-boarding

New website & docs launched late September

• Driving quality into the plugin ecosystemBig push to triage and resolve backlog of bugs; normalizing quirks for core plugins

• Unified versioning to assist with stabilityDev Kits released through the Tools for Apache Cordova (http://taco.tools)

• Support for Immerging Native APIsDay Zero Window 10 support; Android Marshmallow support in Nov.; iOS9 support Dec.

Web Apps Native Apps

Breadth of Devices Rich ExperiencesPinned Sites

ManifoldJS

Apache Cordova and it’s downstreams

TabrisJS

Ionic

Titanium

NativeScript

Xamarin

ReactNative

WEBVIEW

Transpilers

Full access to device capabilitiesNative performance

Highly customized per device

Arbitrated access to device capabilities Web performanceMaximum code sharing

Thank you.@ryanjsalvaVisual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova