The furious rate of technological change and growth in the mobile market has made it very challenging for developers to strategically plan a bespoke project, not only from a technical standpoint, but also because the market share for smartphones is changing rapidly between different systems.

At the start of the smartphone revolution, the iPhone iOS dominated the mobile market, but Google Android has now demonstrably overtaken iPhone in terms of market share, due partly to the power of the Google brand and partly to the platform’s openness. Other mobile operating systems include the BlackBerry and Windows 10 Mobile.

As well as the wealth of mobile platforms emerging, there are now more hardware manufacturers than ever producing mobile devices.

When considering how best to incorporate mobile technology into an existing business model, the primary issue for both clients and developers is currently the choice between native apps and web applications – or a combination of the two.

Other issues include:

• The inherent restrictions caused by loading, caching and latency issues on mobile devices.
• The unique interaction models in mobile hardware.
• Data transfer levels within mobile networks.