FHWS Science Journal - Fakultät Informatik und Wirtschaftsinformatik

Patrick Mennig
Platform
Feature
Browser Safari on iOS Android Browser Internet Explorer
Platform iPhone, iPad Phones & Tablet Windows Phone 7.5 Windows 8
Versions tested 3.2 to 6.1 1.5 to 4.2 9 10
Geolocation yes yes (2.0+) yes yes
Motion Sensors yes (4.2+) yes (3.0+) no no
Touchevents yes yes (2.1+) no yes
File API yes (6.0+) yes (3.0+) no yes
Media Capture partial (6.0+) yes (3.0+) no no
Notifications API no no no no
Network Information API no yes (2.2+) no no
Table 1: API coverage of mobile browsers.
Source: Author’s representation, based on [Firtman, M. 2013].
4.4 Distribution
Not only the development of an application in itself should be considered. Also, one should keep
in focus that an app has to come to the customer. In the case of enterprise apps, it is easier due
to separate stores. But if a developer goes for a "typical" app for the end-user, he needs ways
and means to expel the product. The manufacturers of the various mobile operating systems
provide this in form of their own app stores. On these central platforms, developers can publish
and sell their applications without having to worry about hosting and billing. In return, the suppliers
keep a given percentage (usually 30%) of the revenue generated [iOS Developer Program 2013]
[Android Developer 2012] [Windows Dev Center 2013].
To mention is that only native and hybrid applications can be set in the stores. A web
application is running as pure web site and offers no standard way to distribute them
commercially. Although some stores for web apps are created already, they are still little
frequented. A separate billing system can certainly be created, but this means extra effort in
development.
4.5 Development Cost
In addition to the criteria already considered the cost plays a strong role in the development. It is
important to keep in mind that native development only targets a single platform. This means that
the same application has to be developed several times in case it should be available on multiple
platforms (for example iOS and Android). It follows that this also multiplies development costs. In
contrast, web development allows that the app, once created, can be used on different operating
systems. Hybrid development is a middle way. Since a large part of the application logic is
platform-independent, only slightly higher costs for the preparation of native container arise.
The costs of development for the various operating systems are far apart. An examination of the
estimates of sample applications for various platforms shows that creating a native iOS
application can be almost twice as expensive as developing a web application with similar
functionality. The exact figures are not important at this point, however, the trend is interesting. It
FHWS SCIENCE JOURNAL, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2013 29