CrustLab your mobile development service provider!

Mobile development is a service for creating mobile applications or software for use via a mobile phone. Mobile apps can be installed on the phone or run directly in the browser, but with the possibility of using all the features that a smartphone provides. Mobile development allows businesses to be even more accessible to customers from their favorite device, which they always have with them. This is how the engagement and frequency of visits in the mobile app grows.

Due to the technology they are made of, we can distinguish two types of mobile applications:

• native applications (iOS / Android / Windows development)
• cross-platform applications (hybrid app development)

When you decide to use a native mobile application, you need to write two separate source codes: one for the iOS mobile app and the other for the Android mobile app. It is a longer and more expensive process, but it achieves a much higher performance of the mobile app, offers better flexibility and allows you to create custom User Experience in a cheaper way. Cross-platform applications are cheaper to build because they operate on the basis of one source code regardless of the device and operating system. Hybrid applications are more complex, so it is more difficult to optimize them to achieve the highest performance.

A mobile application is a digital product that works with a mobile phone or tablet. Mobile applications use the capabilities of the device, so they are often based on such solutions as geolocation, sensors or the use of a camera. They do not require a stable internet connection as things could be easily cached or stored in the device's memory. Of course it is possible to create an offline mobile application but that would depend on your business needs. You can benefit from mobile applications regardless of the industry.

There are several types of mobile applications such as: native applications - dedicated to a specific operating system iOS apps and Android apps, cross-platform applications - also known as hybrid applications, which work with any operating system or device. Mobile apps can be used in e-commerce, gaming, betting, fintech, travel, e-learning, sports, health care, transport and many more.

If you have doubts whether the mobile application can be useful to your business, ask about the experience of specialists in this field. Starting the project we consult your goals and challenges you are facing. Mobile apps is a solution that works well in most industries. If you are looking for new ways to reach your customers, this might be one of them.

Continuation of a project started by another company is not a problem for us if you have access to the source code of the app. In this situation, we start with an audit of the mobile app code to decide whether it is worth developing it or whether it is better to refactor the source code. Writing a mobile application that was created by another company can be difficult and time-consuming, but it is possible. Everything would depend on the quality of services offered by a company you cooperated with.

There are many factors you should consider when choosing the type of mobile app. Your business assumptions, industry in which you operate, budget or marketing strategy will be as important as technical issues. It is important that you are determined before starting work on the mobile application. Changing your mind at a late stage will definitely be costly. Native mobile applications use the full capabilities of the device and work efficiently because they are optimized for a specific operating system. As a result, they only work on one platform, so the cost of creating native applications for other platforms increases. Hybrid applications are cheaper because they operate on the basis of one source code, but they require careful optimization to achieve high performance.

It cannot be stated unequivocally, but in most cases, the most efficient mobile applications are native applications. This is because they are created exclusively for a given operating system, so they are easy to optimize to achieve high performance and ensure good user experience. Another advantage is the wide range of APIs that developers can use to expand the functionality of the mobile app. In some cases, mobile applications created with Flutter technology could have very similar or even equal performance as the native applications. Everything depends on the features implemented in the app and its complexity. For simple applications with only a few screens and common UI/UX, the performance would be very same. In the case of complex applications the difference could be visible.

Going mobile would definitely draw more customers and help grow your business. Some companies, depending on the industry in which they operate, treat mobile apps as a necessary element of their business strategy. This is because mobile applications increase customer engagement (through push notifications, gamification or coupons), facilitate customer service, or simply increase conversions and revenues (e.g. in the e-commerce industry).

However, these are not enough reasons to make you decide to create a mobile application. Before making that decision, answer the following questions: What are your business assumptions and will the mobile application help to meet them? Is there already such a mobile app on the market? If yes, how would you make a difference? Would mobile applications bring new functionality to your business? Would your target group like to use mobile applications? Is your business ready to finance a mobile app and would it be profitable to create it?

Android development is a process of creation of a mobile application that could be running on the Android Operating System. This is in fact the most popular mobile operating system in the world. Commercially sponsored by Google. Widely used in wearable devices (Wear OS), TV (Android TV), some IoT devices (RTV & AGD), car MMI systems. As for any kind of investment in mobile development, android development should be preceded by a target market research.

iOS development is a process of creation of a mobile application that could be running on the iOS operating system that is the OS of iPhone and iPad. It’s the second most popular mobile operating system in the world and the most popular mobile operating system in the US where iOS has over ~60% of the market share. As for any kind of investment in mobile development, iOS development should be preceded by a target market research.

Minimum Viable Product is the most basic version in which your product is capable of functioning. PWA has only substance looks, necessary to run the app and get to know the users feedback and minimize the final cost of the project. Typically, the result of MVP development could be easily changed and extended with customs software development services, leading to a complete software product - mobile application, the web application of custom software service.

Progressive Web App is a mobile version of a web page that behaves and looks like a native app. Users can choose a platform, operating system or device to use it. Thanks to the PWA approach you can have a user-friendly, performant and fast website as a mobile app which is not so expensive in comparison. PWA cannot use some of the mobile phone’s features but it is a perfect fit for example for e-commerce projects. PWA development is a process of creating a new or adjusting your existing web application so that the web application could be downloaded by mobile device users and used as a native mobile application.

A hybrid solution that mixes the features of web and native applications. Your app will run on different platforms without having to write separate source code for iOS and Android. This type of application is based on single code regardless of operating system, which makes it easier and faster to develop.

Native apps unlike cross-platform solutions are designed for one particular operating system (iOS or Android). Focusing on only one platform allows more accurate optimization, maximization of performance, and meticulous design of the user interface of the app.

When implementing the mobile development service, we use different programming languages, depending on whether the app operating system is: Android, iOS, or a cross-platform solution. In the first case, we focus mainly on: Kotlin, Java, RxJava. In the second case, we use technologies like Swift / SwiftUI. The third option arises using Flutter and React Native. There are also site libraries that could be used by us to support for example custom camera handling, sensors like Bluetooth, and others.

The skills most needed in the work of a mobile developer are primarily the knowledge of technologies such as Kotlin, Java, RxJava (Android development) and Swift, SwiftUI (iOS development), or Flutter and React Native (Cross-platform development). Depending on the business needs developers would have to know BlueTooth technology or libraries like Unity for a custom 3D game development. In addition, a mobile developer should be creative, communicate easily in English, know how to solve problems, and be able to analyze data. A good mobile developer knows the basics of designing User Interfaces for mobile devices and cares about cybersecurity issues.

The mobile development process is nothing more than a description of the steps that take place in a certain order to complete the mobile development project. A typical mobile development process can be divided into the following stages: Planning during which the entire product is defined, tools, technologies, a team as well as the division and sequence of tasks to be performed are selected. Designing during which the visual layer of the product is created, initially in low-detailed mockups, up to the final version reflecting the appearance of the mobile app 1:1. Development, i.e. the phase in which the assumptions planned and illustrated at the previous stages, thanks to the work of programmers, are rewritten in the form of source code and become a real product. Launch, i.e. putting the mobile application into use

The last, but very important part of the whole process is the Post-Launch phase, which consists mainly of collecting user feedback on the operation of the mobile application and introducing corrections.

If your business does not use a mobile app, you give up the possibility of reaching a large group of users who use mobile devices every day and have them in their pockets almost all day long. Thanks to push notifications and gamification, you will engage your audience. Geolocation will let you know when customers are nearby. And constant and direct contact with users will allow you to conduct an unlimited number of A/B tests. All this to increase sales and recognition of your products, as well as monetize traffic from the mobile app in a convenient and user-selected way.

Mobile app maintenance is one of our services. After completing the mobile development, we provide support in the maintenance and further development of the mobile application, review usage statistics, have a look at problems and fix errors on an ongoing basis.

Quality assurance is one of the most important parts of mobile development. Created software is continuously tested by a dedicated quality assurance team during the mobile development process. Before the official launch of an app, we perform tests on a wider group of potential customers of your product and make sure that we haven’t missed any problem. Once the app is published in-store, we review all the metrics, looking for potential bottlenecks and problems.