Potential Advantages and Disadvantages of Multiplatform Development Frameworks–A Vision on Mobile Environments

Abstract

In this paper, we present a position on potential advantages and disadvantages that may rise after the utilization of multiplatform frameworks for creating mobile applications. Mobile frameworks evolve to offer solutions that allow to simplify the development process in order to achieve products that can be deployed in different mobile operating systems. Based on the experience of the large success of web applications in desktop computing, a similar paradigm shift from target-specific to cross-platform applications could be foreseen in the mobile software industry. Development and marketing practices should understand this philosophy, learn from similar experiences and identify its advantages and disadvantages, to exploit the potential of the opportunities and anticipate to the challenges that changing a development paradigm brings forth. Our objective is to promote discussion by introducing a series of questions to understand how the use of target-agnostic products may shift the mobile application outlook.