One of the biggest pain factors for mobile app developers used to be the need to understand multiple complicated environments with vastly differing APIs. With the advent of cross platform development frameworks like Appcelerator’s Titanium, this is no longer the case. Developers can now focus on a single code base using Javascript, and harness the power of Titanium to connect with the native interfaces and create rich featured mobile applications.
The Titanium SDK offers over 5000 Javascript APIs to enable developers to develop for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows and mobile web. The SDK along with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) are available free of charge for developers of commercial applications. A large community of mobile developers also supports the SDK. An Enterprise version is available on payment that offers cloud based services and other additional support. The Eclipse based Titanium Studio IDE is well integrated with the mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) provided by Appcelerator as well as the Alloy MVC Framework, which makes it a comprehensive platform for mobile development.
Here are some of the reasons why Titanium has captured the interest of mobile developers and is the choice for more than 70,000 mobile applications:
Range of mobile devices: An efficient cross platform framework like Titanium allows developers to create apps that can reach many different devices within the same schedule of development. Using the SDK provided by Titanium, they would have the ability to use native APIs of many different environments, including iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows. This means that their app would be available to a large range of devices, at the same time eliminating the waiting time for an Android user to get an app from iOS or vice-versa.
Quick learning curve: With a good knowledge of Javascript, developers could quickly be trained in the nuances of the different mobile environments and start on the process of creating apps. It is no longer necessary to know each native API in detail before approaching this task. This also means that teams need not search for experts in native APIs each time they need to develop for a new environment, but rather could use existing resources who are Javascript experts.
Focused development: Development in one language can be performed in a more focused manner, as compared to having to gain that same level of expertise in many languages and environments. The Titanium Studio IDE helps to improve productivity by enabling a fast development, testing and publishing schedule across the different environments. Using SDK to develop your mobile applications might prove to be as much as 20% faster than writing in the native language or APIs. It also helps that SDK offers more efficient code modules that means that you need to write less code to create apps that are easily scalable as well.
Reduction of costs: Some factors that lead to a saving in cost when choosing to develop using Titanium include:
- Reduced cost of training due to the main focus being on Javascript, which is a resource that is relatively easy to train in.
- Optimizing of timelines due to one schedule of development rather than multiple ones for different languages and environments. 60 – 90% of the written code can be reused across platforms when using Titanium SDK.
- Getting support from a community of developers that reduces the dependency on paid support.
Faster time to market: With the amount of competition in the mobile app market, there is a great sense of urgency in the development cycle. It is not enough to just think of a niche idea for an app, but also ensure that it gets to the user or customer as fast as possible. The combined advantage of some of the above mentioned factors is that your app would reach the market up to 60% faster with Titanium, compared to developing with different timelines for different versions based on mobile environments.
A cross platform framework like Titanium embraces the concept that you can develop in Javascript, but still make the best use of each mobile platform’s strengths. This means that your app would still leverage the UI and other advantages provided by a specific platform or environment, while giving you the convenience of interacting with the native APIs in Javascript. This is why it is possible to achieve a look and feel similar to using the native APIs, when you choose Titanium for your mobile app development.
As you can download the Titanium SDK and IDE free or charge, you can try it out for yourself before making up your mind. Once you are convinced that it is the right resource for your project, you could then choose to opt for the paid features on offer.