Industrial Cloud Platform Market experiences a significant surge at a CAGR of 32.3% from 2023 to 2030, According to Reports Insights Industrial Cloud Platform Market is experiencing rapid growth due to Industrial cloud platforms are a key enabler of Industry 4.0, as they provide a secure and scalable platform for storing, processing, and analyzing data from connected devices. Key players in this growth include IBM, Amazon Web Services, Inc., Google Cloud, Salesforce, Inc., Oracle, SAP, GE DIGITAL, Bosch Global Software Technologies Private Limited, ABB, Rockwell Automation

The industrial cloud platform market is expected to grow rapidly in the due to the growing adoption of Industry 4.0, the increased demand for real-time data insights, the need for cost-effective and scalable solutions, regulatory compliance requirements, and the growing demand from emerging economies. Industrial cloud platforms are a type of cloud computing platform that is specifically designed for industrial applications. They offer a secure and scalable platform for storing, processing, and analyzing data from connected devices.

The industrial cloud platform market is segmented by solution, platform, and end-user industry. The solution segment is further divided into software and services. The software segment is expected to grow at a faster rate than the services segment, due to the increasing demand for pre-configured and ready-to-use software solutions.

The platform segment is further divided into public, private, and hybrid. The public platform segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate, due to the low cost of entry and the ease of use. The private platform segment is expected to grow at a slower rate, due to the high cost of implementation and maintenance.

Industrial Cloud Platform Market Growth Drivers:

• The increasing adoption of Industry 4.0: Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution, which is characterized by the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to automate and digitize manufacturing processes.
• The need for real-time data insights: Industrial cloud platforms can help companies collect and analyze data from connected devices in real time, which can be used to improve decision-making, optimize production processes, and prevent downtime.
• The need for cost-effective and scalable solutions: This is important for industrial companies, which often have large amounts of data to manage.

 Restraints:

• Security concerns: Industrial cloud platforms need to be highly secure in order to address these concerns.
• Lack of standards: There are currently no industry standards for industrial cloud platforms. This can make it difficult for companies to choose the right platform for their needs.
• High costs: This could limit the adoption of industrial cloud platforms in some markets.

Industrial Cloud Platform Market Segmentation Details:

By component: The industrial cloud platform market is segmented into software and services. The software segment is further divided into platform software and application software. The platform software segment includes solutions for managing and securing data, applications, and devices.

The application software segment includes solutions for specific industrial applications such as manufacturing, energy, and transportation.

By service: The industrial cloud platform market is segmented into professional services and managed services.

Professional services include services such as consulting, integration, and training. Managed services include services such as monitoring, maintenance, and support.

By application: The industrial cloud platform market is segmented into manufacturing, energy, transportation, and others. The manufacturing segment is the largest segment of the industrial cloud platform market. This is due to the large amount of data generated by connected devices in manufacturing plants.

The energy segment is the second largest segment of the industrial cloud platform market. This is due to the need for real-time data insights to optimize energy production and consumption. The transportation segment is the third largest segment of the industrial cloud platform market. This is due to the need for real-time data insights to improve fleet management and optimize transportation routes.

The end-user industry segment is further divided into manufacturing, energy, transportation, and others. The manufacturing segment is expected to be the largest market for industrial cloud platforms, due to the large amount of data generated by connected devices in manufacturing plants.

Do you remember the last time when you purchased something online? You might have done a lot of research before you made the final purchase decision. You might have watched videos and visited different review sites to consider a product or service. Most of the online shoppers go on different marketing channels like Google, Google Shopping, Facebook ads, eCommerce websites, YouTube, and review sites before they make a purchase. The path of a customer from the awareness to the decision stage is usually a zig-zag one. But have you ever thought about how brands keep track of these customer touchpoints? A CDP customer data platform can help you monitor customer touchpoints and interactions.

Here, in this blog, we will discuss in detail customer data platform marketing, customer data integration software, and integration with Shopify. 

What is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)? 

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that combines data from multiple tools into a single centralized customer database that contains data from all touchpoints and interactions with your product or service. CDP integrations collect and exhibit real-time data into individual customer profiles.

Customer Data Platform create customer profiles by integrating data from first-party, second-party, and third-party data sources. This includes website & behavioral data, social media activity, transactional systems, web forms, CRM, DMP, and more. 

How does a Customer Data Platform (CDP) work? 

A customer interacts with a brand in new and different ways. Every time they interact with your brand they leave bits of information called first-party data. A CDP takes in first-party data and transforms it by matching individual customer identities from different systems and combining them into a single and accurate customer profile. This is a continuous and ongoing process. 

A customer data platform performs the four main tasks that we have given below. This information will help you increase your understanding of how a customer data platform works. 

1. Collect data from different sources 

A customer data platform is a centralized source of all the customer data your company has. For unifying all your customer data, CDP needs to collect and organize each individual customer data from your company’s different CRM platforms and data streams. This also includes systems like eCommerce websites, marketing platforms, and service software. Collecting and unifying all this customer data and identifying each customer based on their engagement is called “customer resolution”. 

2. Organize your data 

The next step of the customer data platform is to resolve customer identities across devices. This means creating links of identity information from your known customers (those who have provided their email addresses & phone numbers) with anonymous data (cookies and mobile device IDs) they may have shared before they became your customer. 

The main purpose of cross-device identity resolution is to help you get a complete view of your customers’ journeys. For example, you can look at a customer profile and analyze which was their first interaction point and which marketing channel led them to the final purchase decision.

3. Utilize your data 

Once fully unified customer profiles are created, the data is activated and is available for your teams to utilize in the marketing strategies. You can do customer data integration with different technology platforms for personalizing customer experience. This includes email marketing engines, marketing automation systems, real-time analytics, and content management systems. 

However, if you opt for an advanced customer data platform like WebMaxy eGrowth, you don’t need to do too many customer data integrations. You can utilize your customer data directly from the platform for email marketing, marketing campaigns, marketing automation, retargeting ads, and more. 

4. Draw insights from data 

A customer data platform creates unified customer profiles which makes it easy to track customer journeys. You can easily create segments of customers based on their attributes, recent activity, and purchase behavior. You can use this data to create lookalike audiences and reach new audiences for your brand. Since a customer data platform organizes and unifies customer data, it becomes a great source of information for your marketing efforts.

What is customer data integration? 

A customer data platform uses first-party data, which means it uses data that’s collected by the company itself. Third-party data is the user data that is purchased or shared by other businesses to a company. Third-party data is often used to target potential customers with advertising and marketing. 

Customer data platforms take first-party data and make it useful through the customer data integration process. This customer data integration process involves combining information and identifiers from distinct databases into a usable form for in-depth analysis. 

Customer data integration: Everything you need to know about it 

Customer data integrations enable your customer data platform to function. There are different types of customer data Shopify integration methods that you can use for this purpose. Customer data platforms use consolidation to integrate customer data. It involves taking data from multiple sources and organizing it in a central data warehouse. Below, we have given customer data integration best practices for your reference.

• Utilize customer data to its full potential: To utilize your customer data to its full potential, you must focus on three factors. First, determine the North Star Metric that matters the most to your business. Second, be mindful of the data you’re collecting and how you’re going to utilize it. Third, make sure you are securing and storing the data appropriately.
• Mark the bad data at your company: Here, bad data means data that’s inaccessible, outdated, unorganized, or not first-party data. Remember bad data doesn’t mean data that’s collected improperly. To get the most out of the data, you must understand what bad data is so you can avoid it priorly.
• Segment customer data for a better understanding: Segmenting customer data can help you get the most out of data. With the help of a CDP, you can segment customer data and create personalized experiences that lead to higher customer engagement.

CDP vs. CRM 

Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) both collect and store customer data for the organization. However, they are different from each other in many ways as we have stated below:

• Customer Data Platform (CDP)Customer Relationship Management (CRM)Customer Data Platform is meant for marketing. It gathers & unifies customer data from different sources to build a single & coherent view of customers. This customer data is made available to marketers for creating personalized marketing campaigns.
• CRM solutions are best for sales. They help marketers gather customer data that they can use to build strong customer relationships. CRM solutions unlike a CDP don’t collect data from multiple sources. But a CRM solution can use CDP data.
• Customer Data Platform collects data on anonymous visitors.
• CRMs only report and analyze data on known customers or potential customers.
• Customer Data Platform analyzes customer journeys and lifetime customer behavior.
• CRM mainly focuses on sales forecasting and pipeline.
• Customer Data Platforms can collect customer data from both online and offline marketing sources.
• CRMs can’t track offline customer data unless it’s not manually entered.
• Customer Data Platforms can help you manage multiple data points from different sources. This also reduces the chances of missing out on data.
• CRMs are built on individually entered data that can get lost if not entered or handled appropriately.

CDP vs. DMP

Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Data Management Platform (DMP), both collect data that helps to improve the customer experience. But both the platforms are different from each other in many ways as we have explained below:

• Customer Data Platform (CDP)Data Management Platform (DMP)CDP work with both anonymous & known customer data & store data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
• Data Management Platform works with anonymous entities such as cookies, IP addresses, and IP addresses.
• Customer Data Platform helps in all types of marketing.
• DMPs help in advertising to create better ads and reach the right audiences.
• Customer Data Platform mostly collects first-party data (directly from the source).
• DMPs mostly collect third-party data through data providers & services.
• CDPs utilize specific customer identifiers like names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
• DMPs utilize anonymous customer identifiers like cookies, IP addresses, devices, etc.
• CDPs capture and retain data for a long time to build comprehensive & accurate customer profiles.
• DMPs keep data for a short time to build lookalike audiences and targeted ads.

CDP vs. CRM vs. DMP 

A customer data platform is often confused with CRM and CDP. Let’s have a look at how customer data platforms (CDPs), customer relationship platforms (CRMs), and data management platforms (DMPs) are different from each other.

• A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is especially meant for marketing. It collects and unifies first-party customer data from different sources to build a coherent and complete view of customers. It makes data available to marketers for creating targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a solution that helps companies manage customer relationships and interactions with all of their customers and prospects.
• A Data Management Platform (DMP) is focused on helping in web display advertisements. A DMP uses third-party data to get new customers for a business. The data collected by a DMP is anonymized and stored for a short period of time of around 90 days.

Benefits of a Customer Data Platform 

From the information above, you must have understood the differences between a CDP, CRM, and DMP. In this section, we will tell you how a customer data platforms can help you in different ways. 

1. Know your customers better 

To create the best marketing campaigns, it’s important that you understand your customers better. A customer data platforms helps you build customer profiles that give you a complete view of every individual. You can easily conduct customer behavioral analysis and sort customers based on their traits. CDPs can help you improve customer relationships by targeting them with personalized marketing campaigns. 

2. Organized customer data 

Acquiring and organizing customer data is a strenuous task. A customer data platform makes organizing customer data in a usable form very easy. However, you need to have a data tracking plan and data governance strategy in place to make the right use of a customer data platforms. Without a data governance strategy, you can easily collect data that’s not useful for your business. 

3. Detailed customer analytics  

Customer analytics can help marketers direct their advertising, marketing, and sales efforts in the right direction. Customer analytics involves understanding customer behavior through the different stages of the buying journey. 

A CDP is a powerful platform that can provide you with detailed customer analytics. Attribution models can help you find out which marketing campaigns are bringing the most customers. 

A customer data platform like WebMaxy eGrowth can help you analyze customer data with a multi-touch attribution model. You can know and understand which are the right marketing channels to make the investment. You can reduce customer churn and increase customer retention. 

4. Data protection and privacy 

After the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other customer data privacy laws, it has become important to respect your customers’ data privacy. Customer data platforms can help you to maintain customer privacy by limiting the customer data you collect in the first place. Once you set up a data governance strategy, it’ll ensure you’re collecting the customer data that’s legal & vital to your marketing strategy. 

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How to choose the right CDP for your business? 

Now, since you know the benefits of customer data platforms, you might be interested in getting one for your business. However, these days there are many customer data platforms available in the market making it confusing to choose one. Here, we have given 6 simple steps to help you choose the right customer data platform for your business. 

Step 1: Consider stakeholders in the process

Before deciding which customer data platforms to use, you should involve internal stakeholders in the process. Remember the customer data platform that you use is going to take data from different departments of your company. To understand which stakeholders to consider in the process, think about the departments that need customer data. For example, the sales team require customer data, so its stakeholder should be part of the buying process. 

Step 2: Check the use cases 

Another question you should consider before buying customer data platform is what is its use for your company? A customer data platform can help you to consolidate data but what will you do with it? Before opting for a customer data platform, you must determine its use cases. 

A customer data platforms can help you in different ways that we have mentioned below:

• Unifying online and offline data.
• Understanding your customer journey.
• Creating personalized customer experiences.
• Building more targeted multichannel marketing campaigns.

Once, you have decided on the use cases, it’s time to look at your customer data platform options. Check out their website, reviews, and case studies that they have provided. From this information, you’ll get an idea about the customer data platforms that fit your ideal use cases.

Step 3: Decide the tools and features you need 

Next step, decide the tools and features you need for your business. To start off look at the use cases and determine which tools you need to accomplish those. Check the integrations that you might need like Shopify, CRM systems, data warehouses, Google Analytics, Facebook ads, etc. 

After you have decided on the tools you need, sort out the customer data platform options. Ditch the ones which don’t have the integration for the majority of the tools you use. By doing this, you’ll be able to cut down the customer data platforms not right for your business. 

Step 4: Think about the requirements 

Requirements are different than features and use cases. For example, nowadays almost every business looks for a customer data platform that has GDPR and CCPA compliance. Also, data security is a major concern for businesses, they look for secure customer data platforms. 

Check for customer data platforms that have credible security certifications like ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Make a list of the requirements that you want a customer data platform should have. Then, sort out the customer data platforms that don’t meet those requirements. 

Step 5: Draw a comparison between different vendors 

By this step, you might have got a list of customer data platforms that meet the use cases, integrations, and requirements. Now, it’s time to conduct a comprehensive comparison between these customer data platforms. Make a table with the names of shortlisted customer data platforms and the features they have. Don’t include the prices as we will include them in the next step. After shortlisting, check the reviews of these customer data platforms on review sites like Capterra and G2. 

Step 6: Consider the ROI of shortlisted CDPs 

Now, to finally choose a customer data platform, you should look at the ROI of shortlisted CDPs. By considering ROI, you can evaluate which customer data platform provides the best value. Don’t look for opting for the cheapest CDP rather the one which has maximum features and fits your budget. Remember, a customer data platforms can help increase the efficiency of your team and it’s worth investing a good amount as long you’re getting a good value from it. 

An Advanced Customer Data Platform: WebMaxy eGrowth

WebMaxy eGrowth is an advanced customer data platform that can help you do more than just the consolidation of customer data. It comes with a wide range of features such as a KPI dashboard, customer segmentation, marketing insights, marketing workflows, social campaigns, Email marketing, WhatsApp marketing, WhatsApp commerce, customer loyalty, help desk, and retargeting. You just need to integrate with Shopify and eGrowth will start fetching customer data. 

From a KPI dashboard, you can analyze business KPIs like marketing spend, revenue, CPC, CAC, ACOS, and more. In marketing insights, you can see how your different marketing campaigns are performing. You can find out which marketing channels are delivering the best and worst results. Based on the conversion and revenue contribution of distinct marketing channels, you can make your future marketing investments. 

With eGrowth, you can carry out customer segmentation easily. You can segment your customers into lists based on their attributes, recent activity, purchase history, etc. You can use these lists in your marketing campaigns for personalized messaging. The marketing workflow feature enables you to create workflows with automated SMS, Email, and WhatsApp marketing. 

From customer data platform to marketing automation, WebMaxy eGrowth can do it all for you. WhatsApp commerce feature enables you to reach, engage, and convert customers from the platform itself. Not only this, you can manage your social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well. 

WebMaxy eGrowth can help you enhance customer experience and boost revenue. Schedule a demo with our experts to learn more about eGrowth and its features, email us at info@webmaxy.co. 

The future of Customer Data Platform

The future of Customer Data Platforms is Customer Intelligence Platforms. A customer intelligence platform will enable the creation of unified customer profiles that combine profile, behavioral, and transactional data of customers across the business. This will not only give you a complete view of customers but a complete view of the business as well. 

The customer data platforms are limited in analytical and AI capabilities. The next big transformation of the customer data platform is the customer intelligence platform. These platforms will incorporate both first and third-party data. They use machine learning for predictive models and recommendations, which produces accurate and actionable insights. 

Customer intelligence platform insights can be used by both sales and customer service teams not just marketing teams. This information can help to drive teams in the right direction with better communication and provide personalized experiences. 

Customer Data Platform: The conclusion 

A customer data platform can help you unify all your customer data and interactions in one place. Customer data platforms are customer data integration tools that can help you collect dissected customer data and translate it into a usable form. You can get deep insights about customers and analyze their behavioral platforms. 

A customer data platforms can help you find ways to improve your customer experience through the right marketing and sales efforts. You can create personalized customer experiences and increase customer satisfaction. WebMaxy eGrowth is an advanced customer data platform that can help you do more than what a typical customer data platforms does.

Get a complete view of the customer journey and create personalized customer experiences. Automate your marketing channels and reach out to customers at the right time with the right message. Schedule a demo with our experts to learn more about WebMaxy eGrowth, or email us at info@webmaxy.co.

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During the “smartphone” era, app developers targeted specific platforms while developing apps. iOS apps and Android apps were distinct from each other and developed for iOS and Android devices respectively. Developing different versions of the same app for different devices and platforms is simply too costly and time-consuming right now. 

A reliable cross-platform mobile development company helps you create applications that can run on multiple mobile operating systems and platforms.

Businesses need one app that can run on multiple platforms. Entrepreneurs need one app that’s available on both Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Why Is Cross Platform Mobile Development Important?

To understand the importance of Cross-platform mobile app development we need to explore its pros.

Here are the Pros of Cross Platform App Development

Lower Costs

Best cross-platform mobile app development can be 30% cheaper than building native applications for iOS and Android platforms separately. You will have to find only one developer team who can develop the apps for multiple platforms.

Quicker Development

Developing two separate apps for multiple platforms takes time. Cross-platform apps work for numerous platforms but work with multiple code bases. Your team will handle just one project that is compatible with various devices.

Common Chunks Of Code

It is one of the best attributes of mobile cross-platform development. It is possible to create apps for iOS and Android platforms using only one codebase. Huge chunks of codes are common for multiple platforms. That saves tons of time, and effort and leaves little room for error.

Bigger target groups

When you develop an application for multiple devices you automatically reach out to a wider audience. You don’t have to choose between iOS and Android users. You get to reach a much bigger user base from the day of deployment.

Consistent UI and UX

When your team has one project for iOS and Android users, you can expect a higher quality of UI and UX. Since the platforms share the same codebase, it will allow you to uphold your brand’s quality and identity.

Cons of Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Challenging Code Design

Cross-platform applications have a common codebase. However, for inexperienced teams, the code design can be complicated. You should always go with a team with prior experience in cross-platform mobile development.

Long Waiting Time After OS Upgrades

Whenever iOS or Android receives new upgrades or features, it takes some time for the apps to support and adjust to this new feature. Native apps receive Software Development Kits (SDKs) with updates quicker than cross-platform app development frameworks. Top Five Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development 2023.

React Native

React Native is one of the top five hybrid mobile app development frameworks for 2022. It is an open-source UI software framework based on React. Your team can use React Native to create applications for iOS, macOS, Android, Android TV, tvOS, Windows, Web, and UWP.

You or your team can use JavaScript, Java, Swift, or C languages while working with React Native to create hybrid mobile apps.

Xamarin

Xamarin is a popular open-source mobile application development platform. It is a .NET developer platform equipped with tools and libraries that can build apps for iOS, Android, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and Windows platforms.

It relies on the C# programming language. You can access a score of tutorials to become an expert on cross-platform mobile application development in a matter of days.

Flutter

Flutter is one of the newest yet best cross-platform app development frameworks. In the world of cross-platform mobile development, Flutter stands apart from the rest because it uses Dart (programming language) instead of JS or C – languages. With Flutter’s hot-reload feature, you can see modifications in real-time.

With Flutter’s inbuilt graphic engine, it is easy to build apps for both iOS and Android. It offers an environment for more structured programming codes and fewer errors.

Iconic

Iconic is the most popular framework for cross-platform mobile app developers using AngularJS. The mobile apps that you create with Iconic are hybrid HTML apps. The framework allows rapid code development and app deployment with multiple ready-to-use UI components.

Iconic comes with a host of plugin options that you can use for your mobile app. If you want user-centric features with customized functions for your hybrid mobile app, Iconic is your go-to option.

Node.JS

Node.JS is a cross-platform, open-source, and back-end JS runtime environment. It runs on the V8 engine and can execute JS code outside a web browser. Node.JS supports the development of highly scalable network applications.

It has a dedicated and larger user community. So troubleshooting while using Node.JS is no problem at all. It has one of the fastest dynamic language interpreters.

Which Cross-Platform Is Best For Mobile App Development?

We have listed the top 5 cross-platform frameworks. The best one will depend upon several factors –

• The complexity of the UI of your app
• The platforms that can support the app
• The coding knowledge and experience of your cross-platform development company
• Your budget and available time before launch

How To Choose The Appropriate Hybrid App Framework?

Do not blindly go for hybrid mobile app networks listed online. While choosing the framework ideal for your project, you need to consider the following –

• The learning curve, unless you are hiring a team of professionals.
• Explore the active apps based on your chosen framework.
• The ease of making changes and troubleshooting during quality testing.

Can you hire cross-platform app developer for your project who work with the framework easily and within your budget? If not, talk to a reliable and experienced cross-platform mobile app development company first and then ask them for advice on the hybrid app framework.

To know how much cost to develop app, you can connect with our team. Schedule a call with our experts to get an estimation for your cross platform app development project, or email us at sales@sphinx-solution.com.

Creating mobile apps are an art – an art of expression, an art of imagination, an art of compassion and an art of excellence. Nevertheless, still there happen to be many app developers writing native iOS or Android codes for app development. Are you in deep love with the platform specific programming language and tools, is it due to skill set issue, the need for an application or it is just an ignorance? Wake up! It is high time to re-evaluate your approach towards mobile app development.

According to the Statista, total mobile app downloads in 2016 were around 140.68 billion; in 2021, it crossed the mark of 230 billion downloads. Due to the increased demand for mobile apps, cross platform app developers are looking for new ways of delivering excellent mobile applications swiftly without compromising with the quality and outcome of the app.

The Reign of Native Apps

Native apps are platform specific, needing independent development for different platforms. For example, an iOS native mobile app is developed using Objective-C and XCode, whereas Android native apps are developed using Java and Eclipse. The optimised performance and the quality viewing experience are delivered by native apps due to the inbuilt features of the particular OS.

Introduction of Cross-Platform Apps

Mobile app development companies looking out for options to develop crisp apps found solace in Cross-platform software, which offered a flexible, and an efficient alternative to the native apps. The journey of cross-platform app development started with Titanium and the PhoneGap surfaced. Eventually, so many web technology based frameworks came into existence and started serving to some extent.

Unfortunately, these web technologies were cursed with severe limitations against object-oriented Objective-C and Java on Android. Inversely, Microsoft technologies were capable of delivering the same, but C# relieved everyone by meeting the expectations of app developers.

Xamarin introduced in 2011 assuaged cross-platform mobile app developers, as people were willing to develop cross-platform mobile apps using Xamarin.

What is Xamarin?

Founded based on Mono, an open source realization of .NET Framework, Xamarin is an effective tool that seamlessly translates code written in C# into native codes for popular mobile platforms. Microsoft later acquired Xamarin on 24 February 2015 and later on confirmed its inclusion in Microsoft Visual Studio as an open source – no extra charge program.

Xamarin Basics

• Xamarin uses C# programming language; therefore, anything you do in Objective-C, Swift and Java can be effectively accomplished in C# and Xamarin
• Being an open source platform of Microsoft any software development company like us, having a dynamic Microsoft development team will get licensed Xamarin version without additional charges as part of the Visual Studio Licensing.
• One of the major benefits of working with Xamarin is code sharing across apps (about 70% of the code running iOS, Android and Windows can be shared) saving money, time and efforts.
• The mobile DevOps support in Xamarin is helpful for developers to distribute the Beta version of the app, collect live crash reports, compile feedback from real users and analyze the test coverage area.
• With its Test Cloud feature; Xamarin, empower developers to run automated testing of the app on more than 2000 devices. Additionally, post-development it helps in building, testing and monitoring a mobile app in the cloud.
• By using Xamarin.Forms Library, it becomes easier to create and render the native UI using native controls of independent mobile platforms.
• Xamarin creates beautiful designs by supporting Model View Controller (MVC) Model View View Model (MVVM) Design Patterns
• It has more than 20,000 NuGet DotNet libraries and Xamarin components

Pros of using Xamarin

Code for All Mobile Platforms in a Single Technology Stack

• Based on C# and complemented with the .NET Framework, Xamarin is relatively easy to create mobile apps for different platforms.
• About 96% of the source code can be reused resulting in speeding up of the engineering cycle.
• No need to switch between development environments as it works with both Xamarin IDE (for Mac) and Visual Studio (for Windows).
• The quality of support provided by both the IDE’s is subsequently enhanced after Microsoft acquired Xamarin and integrated it with Visual Studio.
• All the cross-platform development tools are provided as built-in features without needing you to pay any extra charges.

App Performance is Similar to Native

• The traditional hybrid solutions that are based on web technologies failed to provide native performance from the app, which is precisely provided by the Xamarin.
• The performance metrics offered by apps developed using Xamarin is perfectly the same of what is provided by Java in Android and Objective-C or Swift in iOS mobile app development.
• By offering an effective environment to build, test, monitor and improve the app performance right from the start, Xamarin ensures ubiquitous and unprecedented app performance.
• Due to the valuable pairing of Xamarin Test Cloud with the Xamarin Test Recorder Tool, you get a complete, versatile solution to test and track the app performance.

Native User Experience

• Mobile app developers are able to create a flawless user experience due to the platform-specific UI interface in the Xamarin.
• The app UI components are converted into platform-specific interface elements at run-time using Xamarin.Forms Tool, which is a better option to develop simple iOS, Android, and Windows mobile apps.
• The XamariN.Forms Tools significantly increases the app development speed, thereby making it a great option to execute business-oriented projects.
• Sometimes the app performance developed in Xamarin might show declined performance, which is due to the extra abstraction layer. In such circumstances, developers are provided with an option to use Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android for achieving excellent results.

Integrated Hardware Support

• Xamarin is a complete cross-platform app development package that has eliminated all the hardware compatibility issues with the use of specific APIs and Plugins.
• This enables Xamarin apps to work with the common device functionality across all platforms and extend a fully native app functionality.
• The app database supports access to platform-specific APIs and linking to native libraries for better customization and enhanced native app functionality with minimum operating cost.

Cons of using Xamarin

Delayed Support to the Latest Updates

Although, Xamarin claims to provide same-day support, expect some delays from Xamarin to support for the latest iOS, Android releases.

After all, you need to have some time at hand to implement the changes and/or introduce new plugins.

Open Source Libraries – Limited Access

If native app development makes aggressive use of open source technologies, you just have to depend on the platform specific components along with DotNet open source resources available for both users and consumers.

ON the contrary, thousands of custom UI controls, various charts, graphs, themes, and other powerful features are available as Xamarin components to be added in an app in few clicks. Such components include Beacons and wearables integration, Built-in payment processing (such as Stripe); innovative push notification services, enhanced capabilities for multimedia streaming, solutions related to cloud storage and much more.

Problems Related to Xamarin Ecosystem

Xamarin is a new technology made available for cross-platform app development; it has a significantly smaller developer community, which makes it hard to find an experienced and hard skilled Xamarin developer. Although Microsoft is fueling the efforts to enhance the community strength, it is only about 10% of the total mobile app development community.

Nevertheless, the smaller Xamarin developer community offers extensive support to its developers. Xamarin University is a dedicated educational platform that offers many resources and helpful training to the new engineers joining this community.

Conclusion

Although sufficient basic facts related to Xamarin are provided in the blog, pros and cons mentioned here can be considered as collateral damage. Due to the code sharing, use of single technology stacks, efficiency, native-like app performance, reduce the engineering cost and time to market, many entrepreneurs and startups chose Xamarin mobile app development platform.

Based on our experience, it is better to consider Xamarin for the development of enterprise mobile solutions. Only 5 to 10% effort is needed by developers to customize the platform due to standard UI covering 90% of the projects along with the convenient functionality to share all the core product logic easily.

If you plan to develop a consumer-facing app having arduous UI, then the amount of shared code is drastically reduced, wherein Xamarin cross-platform mobile app development fails to render its major benefit; equaling the time and cost required to develop a native app.

For additional information on other cross-platform app development frameworks, you can read our blog COMPARISON OF TOP FOUR CROSS PLATFORM APP DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS here

Check out some of our cross platform apps

Tupper Club

 TupperClub offers you the chance to meet with some friends in groups and organize to eat every day cooking only one dish per person and week. After cooking each member his recipe, the tuppers are shared among all group so everyone has a different dish for every day. This way, each member of the group has to cook only once a week of saving time. Sounds good…right.

Kiloss-Coach

The Kiloss app helps you plan your diet individually. You can plan your Kiloss days according to your personal needs. The app shows you your successes. With Kiloss, you will lose weight and save a lot of time and money. The Kiloss app also includes a drinking reminder.

Seekmi

 Seekmi’s mobile application helps Indonesians save time and money! Thousands of Indonesians have already used Seekmi to hire AC technicians, personal trainers, handymen, cooking lesson instructors, and everything else. Seekmi allows Indonesians to order over 500 different services, all in one app!

What is your biggest challenge in selecting a platform to develop an App, share your questions below, we will try to share the best solution of your specific need?