Mobile business has never been as fast-paced as today. It’s just a few years back when there were only two main rivals — Microsoft and Palm, and there were no internet capable Smartphones. Now we see people using their iPhone, Windows Mobile, or Android Smartphones every day in various situations. This new situation presents new challenges for software developers of consumer products and business solutions. Millions of people want more and more applications for personal or business use.
Although most mobile devices look similar (in terms of size, display, or equipment) the main differences and difficulties from the developer´s point of view are the developer tools. If you want to develop an app for Windows Mobile you have to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and WinForms. If you choose Windows Phone 7 (which is also provided by Microsoft), you have to use Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight which is a completely different technology. If you choose iPhone or iPad you have to use Xcode and ObjectiveC and finally JAVA for Android.
But what do you do if you wish to offer your app for all the mentioned platforms?
Resco MobileApp Studio
Resco MobileApp Studio is a Microsoft Visual Studio based developer platform, which can be used for development of mobile applications for multiple mobile device types — Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Tablet PC, Windows Phone 7, iPhone, iPad and Android* (Android support is scheduled for end of 2010). It consists of suites of User Interface controls for WinForms, Silverlight, MonoTouch and MonoDroid together with advanced designers and tools allowing developers to quickly design and build mobile forms. Since all the controls and tools are integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio, they can be easily accessed and used from this familiar development environment using programming languages, such as C# or Visual Basic .NET.
Same UI for All Mobile Platforms
One of the main advantages of this product is that most the UI controls have common architecture and programming interface for all device types. There are only a few differences which are very specific for the respective mobile platforms (such as Button or combo style, etc.) So the application can have almost the same source code regarding its business logic as well as UI for all the mobile platforms.
Comparison of the same form displayed on iPhone and on Windows Mobile:
Advanced Designers and Tools
Developing a mobile application from the scratch can be a challenging task. Especially for developers who never did it before. Resco MobileApp Studio provides a set of designers and tools which are integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio and help developers to quickly design and build common mobile forms using wizards and advanced form designers adapted specifically to mobility. Forms design is stored as C# or VB source code (or XAML for Silverlight) included into the application project. So if there is a need for special customization of the entire form, this can be easily performed in C# or VB. Data binding capabilities allow developers to easily bind the designed forms with local databases or CLR business logic.
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Another Nice Feature is Themes and Styles
Themes significantly simplify form design startup by providing a set of form themes for various mobile form types. The idea of the styles is similar to Microsoft Office Word. Styles allow developers to define custom styles of visual elements and apply them to all items in the entire application. If a developer wants to change the look of an item (such as form title, edit box, etc.) he just needs to change the respective style and it changes all the related items in the whole application.
Conversion Tool
Resco MobileApp Studio provides conversion tool to import UI of Resco .NET CF controls. The conversion tool ensures that developers can continue with their already designed controls in the new environment of Resco MobileApp Studio. Thus it significantly simplifies conversion of Windows Mobile, WinCE, or Tablet PC application to Windows Phone 7 platform.
Conclusion
Mobile application development is a challenging task, but within a few years most developers will have to face it. Choosing the right developer platform can make the process a lot easier and faster.
For more information about Resco MobileApp Studio click here.
