We are excited to build applications on Xamarin!
February 9, 2017
Do you know the most common question asked by Mobile Software Development Teams when they usually meet the customers?
No, it is not a budget. It is the platforms which the required application is intended to work on. This is the one of the key parts of future Mobile application which will affect the cost of development. Also the delivery time, of course.
The variety of supported platforms for the application means the wide range of possible downloaders and correspondingly a chance for a quick popularity.
Availability for a different platforms also makes an application more professional among others.
Therefore, more platforms supported, the better for application.
First of all, what is the Xamarin platform? The Wikipedia says:
"Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned San Francisco, California-based software company founded in May 2011 by the engineers that created Mono, Mono for Android and MonoTouch, which are cross-platform implementations of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and Common Language Specifications (often called Microsoft .NET).
With a C#-shared codebase, developers can use Xamarin tools to write native Android, iOS, and Windows apps with native user interfaces and share code across multiple platforms, including Windows and macOS. Over 1 million developers were using Xamarin's products in more than 120 countries around the world as of May 2015."
Speaking less technical, this means that it is time to build Mobile applications using a single programming language and single tools whithout worrying how it will behave on different Mobile platforms like Android and iOS. Isn't that pretty?
As a software developer I remember the effort we usually spend for the same application in order to make it available for iOS and Android devices. Two different developers usually take care of this as there is no possibility to reuse your code from one platform to another.
Xamarin breaks this rule. It allows to combine the code, eliminating the total application cost and correspondingly the development time.
One of the best sides of Xamarin - it is Open Source. You can see this on official website:
"We officially open sourced the Xamarin SDK for Android, iOS, and Mac under the same MIT license used for the Mono project. Now, .NET is open source and native on every single device, from mobile to desktop to cloud."
Source
Also:
"We’re building a truly open source community around Xamarin.
We want it to be as easy as possible for developers to invest time in building great software in C#. Being part of an open source project means more than just writing code — there are many ways you can contribute."
"Xamarin brings open source .NET to mobile development, enabling every developer to build truly native apps for any device in C# and F#. We’re excited for your contributions in continuing our mission to make it fast, easy, and fun to build great mobile apps."
Source
As you can see, contributions are welcome.
At TechVertica, we are fond of new technologies and the Xamarin is just what we expected for! We hope, it will help us to go to a different level with the development time & cost and at the same time delivering a great mobile applications.