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Open Letter to All Mobile App Developers: It’s 2016, Learn How to Build Cross-Platform Apps

Please stop labeling your apps as “Available on Apple Store and Google Play”. Your apps should work on all platforms. Please spend some time to brush up your skills and move up to the next level, which is “develop once, run everywhere”.

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App should work on all platforms, not just on iPhone and Android!

You don’t have excuses anymore. All you need is HTML5/CSS3/JS, as you know. Besides, there are several mobile development platforms to make development easier for you. Give it a try. I know you are very busy with your full-time job and family. You may need to sacrifice your evenings and weekends for the learning curve, but believe me, it is worth it.

You probably think cross-platform apps won’t have all the capabilities that native apps do. Don’t worry about it. If your app is not firing a rocket to space, you will be okay.

You may be thinking that you already cover 95% of the mobile users by developing for iOS and Android only. Please note that the 5% you ignore is about 100 million users. They will thank you if you don’t ignore them. If you do, think about the advertisement revenue you will make from them. There is less competition and more demand in that 5%.

I’ve been using Microsoft’s and BlackBerry’s mobile operating systems for over 10 years. This means you have been ignoring me for over a decade. You probably don’t have any idea of how annoying it is to see those applications that you want to use only work on iOS and Android. It’s sometimes a banking application, sometimes a game, sometimes a dating trend. Most of the time, I don’t have any alternative to use, like the case of Snapchat and Angry Birds. Sometimes I have limited alternatives, such as 6tin for Tinder and 6tag for Instagram. Sometimes I try to use a mobile browser to get the job done, like I do with Bank of America and Chase. However, they are not full-featured on the browser. For example, you can’t deposit checks by taking photos of them on the mobile browser, while you can do it in the mobile application.

I had been using Lumia 1020 (Windows Phone 8.1) until last week. My carrier told me that I have a free upgrade to change my device. Guess what? I bought a Lumia 950 (Windows Phone 10)! I’m pretty happy with it. User-friendly interfaces, fast screen animations and page switches, amazing shots even in dark scenes, and fully synchronized OneDrive photos and documents are some of the cool things I like about this phone. I said that I’m “pretty” happy, not completely, because of the apps I don’t have…

I’m not working for Microsoft, nor am I getting paid for this post. I’m just telling how it is to use a smartphone that doesn’t run on Android or iOS.

PLEASE HELP people by making your application available on all platforms.

Ned

Ned Sahin

Blogger for 20 years. Former Microsoft Engineer. Author of six books. I love creating helpful content and sharing with the world. Reach me out for any questions or feedback.

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