Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Panel Discussion

This month we hosted a Panel Discussion on the topic of Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps

Our panelists were:

Mark Wilcox - Mobile Tech Lead at Olio
Mark has been building mobile apps for more than 20 years. Native on both platforms but also cross-platform before it was trendy (or good). Currently in a love-hate relationship with React Native.

Gabrielle Earnshaw - Freelance Mobile App Engineering & Strategy Specialist
Gabrielle is a technologist who specialises in using strategy and engineering to accelerate teams building high-value mobile apps. She has worked with blue-chip organisations building apps used by millions of people on iOS and Android, using a variety of native, cross-platform and web technologies.

Jimmy Forrester-Fellowes - Rocketware Founder & App Development Consultant
From cross platform frameworks, to PWA's, to native apps - Jimmy has tried them all for his small business. Jimmy is the designer and developer behind numerous apps with approximately 300k monthly active users.

Luke Hampshaw - Head of Software Engineering at Sky
Luke has been engineering frontend applications since the early noughties. Driven by a deep passion for engineering excellence and cultivating high-performing, empowered teams. Luke lives near Leeds and works for Sky leading the MySkyApp team as head of Software Engineering

Transcript

1. Our Panelists Mark Wilcox Gabrielle Earnshaw Jimmy Forrester-Fellowes Luke Hampshaw Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
2. Mark Wilcox Mark has been building mobile apps for more than 20 years. Native on both platforms but also cross- platform before it was trendy (or good). Currently in a love-hate relationship with React Native. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
3. Gabrielle Earnshaw Gabrielle is a technologist who specialises in using strategy and engineering to accelerate teams building high-value mobile apps. She has worked with blue-chip organisations building apps used by millions of people on iOS and Android, using a variety of native, cross-platform and web technologies. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
4. Jimmy Forrester-Fellowes From cross platform frameworks, to PWA's, to native apps - Jimmy has tried them all for his small business. Jimmy is the designer and developer behind numerous apps with approximately 300k monthly active users. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
5. Luke Hampshaw Luke has been engineering frontend applications since the early noughties. Driven by a deep passion for engineering excellence and cultivating high-performing, empowered teams. Luke lives near Leeds and works for Sky leading the MySkyApp team as head of Software Engineering Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
6. Native iOS Objective-C / Swift Apple, Inc - iOS (2007), SDK (2008), Objective-C (1988), Swift (2014), SwiftUI (2019) 1st Class Support for APIs - Get the latest features immediately and Code Level help from Apple. Use a mixture of Swift & Objective-C along with a mixture UI approaches (Storyboards/Xibs/SwiftUI etc) Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
7. Native Android Java / Kotlin Google, 2005 Provides direct access to sensors and device hardware Access to native APIs to latest features Android 14 is the latest Android OS Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
8. PhoneGap / Cordova Nitobi Software, 2008 Rebranded to Apache Cordova Open Source Hybrid solution that uses native webview components and HTML + CSS + JavaScript. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
9. Xamarin Microsoft, 2011 C# and .NET platform to access native APIs • Xamarin.Forms - like Android XML • Xamarin.iOS - Access to native iOS UI APIs • Xamarin.Android - Access to native android UI APIs Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
10. MAUI “Multiplatform App UI” Microsoft, 2020 C# and XAML with .NET The evolution of Xamarin.Forms and is tightly integrated with .NET 6 and the .NET ecosystem. Unlike Xamarin, it supports both mobile and desktop platforms Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
11. React Native Facebook, 2011 Like React but for native thus called React native. Uses a Javascript background thread (acts a Javascript interpreter) and a middleware bridge that allows to-and- from native API interactions. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
12. Flutter Google, 2017 Uses Dart to build Android, iOS, Web, MacOS, Windows, and Linux. Flutter draws the UI itself using Skia (now moving to Impeller). Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
13. Ionic Drifty, 2013 A cross platform solution that allows development on React, Vue or Angular. Still relevant in 2023 but it's popularity is fading. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
14. Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) Jetbrains, 2019 Shared Business code and direct access to platform specific UI components (e.g. Swift UI and Jetpack compose) Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476
15. Progressive Web Apps A web app that can be added as a launchable app on a mobile device. Can utilise local storage for an offline experience. Leeds Mobile Cross Platform vs Native Mobile Apps Join at slido.com #3641 476