This interesting analysis by Benedict Evans leads me to wonder if Google will continue to advance Android’s native SDKs. It is one thing for Google to press forward with its own native Google Services that support cloud services, and completely another to continue to enhance its native APIs for all users of the Android platform. Google is a cloud company and it is easy to see why they are focusing on their strengths. However, Google is also a mobile app OS provider, and if Google abandons the future development of native APIs on Android, this will make it harder for businesses to develop cross platform native apps. If this occurs, then the business and consumers will both lose.
There is no doubt that consumers appreciate and cherish high quality native apps, that provide superior engagement and ease of use. Acknowledgement of this fact by businesses will help them make better decisions as they adopt or reset their mobile app strategy. It is essential for businesses to produce native apps that implement superior user experiences.
If Google doesn’t keep up with Apple’s native APIs, then businesses will be forced to spend even more on two different strategies to fulfill their mobile design causing problems for businesses financially. Even with a mobile app design strategy, that adopts the proper design language for the platform it will run on, app designers will be able to find common ground in their designs for each platform using native APIs. If one platform promotes native app implementation and the other promotes web implementation, then the commonality of user experience will be drastically different between iOS and Android, creating an unneeded schism.
In iOS 8, we will see the MVP of Extensions. The APIs will move forward and create better cross app communication. In addition, Apple is putting significant effort into APIs that make it easier for app developers to create physics based animations for even the simplest apps. iOS Extensions will be able to keep up with advancing of API’s, while web technologies such as HTML5 can not. iOS users will not tolerate insufficient apps produced by name brand companies, who are expected to please the consumer. This is why the iOS 8 is the right choice of all businesses going into the mobile app world.