The Effectiveness of Xamarin for Cross Platform Development: 7 Reasons Explained

Xamarin is a framework that is capable of bringing the power of .NET and C# on mobile platforms of Android and iOS. The striking aspect of Xamarin is that it is being completely a .NET based framework it allows building robust apps for both Android and iOS platforms simultaneously. The Xamarin-developed apps hardly fall short of the compliance requirements in both of these app marketplaces.

The recent partnership of Microsoft and Xamarin further gave the person more power and solid base to enhance its reputation as a cross-platform environment. While there are too many reasons to explain the widespread popularity of Xamarin Mobile App Development platform for Android and IOS, we would like to introduce here a few of them.

1. Low learning curve

As far as the learning curve is concerned Xamarin is one of the least challenging languages of all. When learning a framework one has to learn several things including process lifecycle, UI norms, the platform SDK, etc. With Xamarin you can be from this long list of things to learn if you have prior experience as a developer with .NET and C#. Xamarin offers a thorough C# implementation along with deployment of the .NET class libraries. A whopping 80% of world's computers and servers are too familiar with these two Microsoft languages. This compatibility of NET/C# code with Xamarin is the biggest advantage helping you to manage the learning curve.

In case you are not a .NET/C# developer, still Xamarin will be the easiest framework to learn for a cross platform developer. Actually for developers on Android and iOS need to master either of the two different programming environments, respectively as Java and Objective-C. Only a handful of developers is skilled enough with both the environments. With Xamarin you can learn one framework that is equipped with iOS, Android, and Windows platform. With Xamarin, the developer needs to learn only C# and just the core set of classes to build apps on both platforms.

2. Addressing distinct aspects of each platform

Xamarin is cool for cross-platform developers because it does not impose any common elements that originally do not exist between two platforms. For example, iOS and Android as mobile platforms are complete with distinct UI and SDK elements that are intrinsic to their look, feel, and functionalities. These elements make what iOS and Android as what we experience and know by their typical features.

So, when there are no common elements originally between these two platforms, the commonality is not imposed by the Xamarin framework. Actually, while many such cross-platform tools try to hide the distinct elements of the platform, the app in most cases looks foreign to the platform in look and feel. With Xamarin you address the distinctive qualities of each platform with more depth.

3. Equipped for rapid development

The best thing about Xamarin is that it allows coding the core application logic once and then sharing it on different mobile platforms for distinct platform specific apps. This capacity implementing the core logic across platforms saves enough development time in comparison to the native development for each platform. To address the native development environment for each different platform one requires writing code for each platform. On the other hand, Xamarin allows you focusing on developing the core app features just once and then deploying it across the platforms with native look and feel. This helps rapid development of cross-platform apps.

4. No to fewer bugs

Actually, the rapid development ensures also fewer glitches and almost no to fewer bugs. The basic reason for both rapid development and the bug-free app is the same. It is nothing but your need to write less code. When you write less code your chances of committing mistakes and erroneous codes are less as well.

There is another aspect of Xamarin apps that contributes to the bugs-free performance. As a cross development platform, it also minimizes the errors by offering optimum test coverage. With Xamarin you can deploy a single test covering a large set of tests allowing validation of the written code across all the platforms.

Lastly, just because the development team can concentrate on the core app logic together without needing o split the focus or the manpower, there are fewer chances of erroneous coding which often happened due to splitting concentration among two native environments. With Xamarin, the total focus of the development team rests basically on .NET/C#.

5. Native performance

Xamarin is the perfect framework to ensure optimum native performance for each platform. The development team can beneficially leverage Xamarin libraries with Visual Studio or the code of your existing mobile app also. With Xamarin the app codes written in Java or Objective-C can smoothly be transitioned to C# for the ideal native feel and market traction. Xamarin as a cross-platform framework allows comprehensive exposure to native functionalities and platform-specific capabilities like iBeacons in iOS and Android Fragments in Android platform.

6. Xamarin component store

Xamarin comes with a developer friendly component store offering a whole range of high-quality components for your app. The components include controls, web service APIs, and other backend components. Hordes of most popular backend apps and platforms can also be integrated easily including Microsoft Azure, SAP, Parse, Salesforce, etc. From the component store, you can pick your security features like authentication and encryption.

7. Xamarin is future ready

It is already clear from the experience of past several years that cross platform development will continue to be the mainstream of app development in the time to come. With more demands for enterprise apps and business apps across the niches, rapid development is increasingly being preferred to gain a cost advantage and minimized time to market.

Naturally, for quicker and glitch free, device optimized cross-platform development, there are not too many commendable frameworks that equally looks promising for the developers with a low learning curve. Xamarin ideally sets the stage for rapid cross-platform development with device ready features for each platform and with C#/.Net at the core offers quite a manageable learning curve. With so much versatility, Xamarin looks truly future ready.