Hidden Champions of the App Economy

As mentioned in a previous post, overall cost performance for cross platform tools by users are quite high, reaching 85%. However, Research2Guidance, a research firm in Germany, finds that despite high satisfaction rates for such tools, less than 5% of apps in major app store are developed with them. (Ref: Mobile app development: Cross-platform tools realize 30% time and cost savings for most developers)

The article goes on, explaining that 75% of developers say that they do not see problems with building cross platform apps at similar quality levels with native apps, thus nullifying the assumption that cross platform leads to low quality, which would in turn lower cross platform tool user rates.


Cross platform tools = high satisfaction rates, no problems with the quality of resulting apps, high cost performance...

So why aren't more developers using cross platform tools?



After analyzing results from their worldwide study, it seems that the tools are not the problem -- awareness of cross platform tools as a whole is low and information about them are not reaching devs.


Research2Guidance offers the following advice to developers:

"For app developers, IT managers, but also app services buying companies, the research results suggest checking if one of the existing CP Tools fits with the project requirement before starting the next app project. With the overall positive user feedback cross-platform tools have received and the low awareness they have in the app market, they are really the hidden champions of the app economy."

With increasing fragmentation, varied devices, OS, screen sizes and the like, cross platform development should definitely be a part of any developer's agenda. The benefits that could be reaped by developing once to accommodate numerous platforms is only a dream come true especially when considering time and cost.

As more and more of these tools are surfacing, don't settle for big name brands that simply have the marketing power to catch developer's eyes like Sencha and Kendo UI. They are great tools, but there are probably other tools out there that suit you better that you just don't know about.