Cross-platform application development for smartphones: Approaches and implications

Smartphones have been a versatile device catering to our communication and computation needs for over two decades now. They provide us the power and capability of computer along with much desired feature of small size. But these phones struggle with the problem of platform dependence. This problem implies that an application developed for a particular smartphone cannot be executed on some other smartphone featuring a different operating system. Due to this, cost per application increases. In light of the recognition and usage diversity of this device, it is an ongoing research area to provide user a seamless integration across multiple platforms. Solution to platform independence ranges from pure software implementation to pure hardware implementation. This paper presents a comparative analysis of different approaches to deal with platform dependence in smartphones against multiple performance parameters.