Should I use Xamarin for Mobile Development? YES you should!

Should I use Xamarin for Mobile Development?  – This a very important question and a question that can cost you alot of time and money if you get it wrong. After wasting many months of my time playing with open web platforms I eventually found Xamarin and since then I’ve not found anything that compares.

So that answer is YES! In my opinion Xamarin is hands down one of the best mobile development platforms available in the market today. Many people don’t know what they’re missing out on by not using Xamarin so I’m going to highlight some reasons I think people should be using Xamarin.

1) It’s Native but with 80%+ code share?

So for those that aren’t aware of Xamarin or how it works, Xamarin allows you to develop apps for iOS, Android and Mac from a single code base. When I say this I don’t mean in a webview or customised API, it actually uses the Native APIs. So for example when developing on Xamarin.iOS you’ll be using UIKit which is the same API that a native developer would be using.

2) C# and F# are Modern languages

C# might not be the hipster language of the year but it is a continually evolving language with solid features like type inference, dynamic types,  language integrated query (LINQ), async/await and first class functions. C# is designed for developing large robust applications. And for the functional types there’s F#.

Both languages have been aggressively developed for many years and it’s not slowing down, C# 6 and F# 4 are soon to be released. If you’ve seen C# a few years ago I encourage you to give it another go as it’s evolved in leaps and bounds.

3) async/await

.. ‘wait but javascript is all async’ i hear you say…  C#/F# async/await is different to what people normally think async is. C#/F# async/await tackles the callback hell problems in rich clients, anyone who works with rich clients will know of these problems. This is a problem that’s attempted to be solved with promises and generators but neither are at the level of async/await.

Here’s a little before/after sample:

Before:

doAsync1(function () {

doAsync2(function () {

doAsync3(function () {

doAsync4(function () {

4) Watches, Google Glass wearables and the future of devices.

In case you haven’t noticed the future isn’t just mobiles it’s wearables, devices and IOT. Xamarin has same day support for all these platforms including android wear, google glass, Amazon TV and more. As I’ve said before Xamarin uses the Native APIs and compiles down to native so using Xamarin you’re in the perfect position develop all modern platforms.

5) It’s ready now!

All the time I hear people say ‘html is a fast moving target’ or ‘it will get there eventually’. Xamarin is here now, it’s Native and it’s cross platform. Why wait to have a great app when you can have it now and as a bonus know that your application is future proof for future devices.

6) It’s fast and stable

From personal experience the Xamarin traditional (Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android) platform is solid, fast and stable. You’d be hard pressed to find a problem with the core parts of the platform, any app bugs will likely be your own bugs.

7) Documentation

The documentation for Xamarin is solid and there’s 100s of sample app on github. Provided by Xamarin and others in the community.

8) Xamarin.Forms

So how about 100% codeshare and still be Native? Xamarin.Forms allows you to program against a single API and have that single API mapped to native controls on each platform. Hanselman describes it well, ‘Write Once Run Everywhere AND Be Native’.

It’s still early days for the product but the top component developers like Telerik and DevExpress are already developing components for Xamarin.Forms.

9) It’s the best of all worlds (Hybrid and Native)

If you’ve taken a look at my Xamarin mashup blog you’d already know that the possibilities with Xamarin are vast, you can essentially create your own Cordova and you can completely integrate it with your C# Mvvm/c# Native Code. So you have the full power of the .net framework to build your client application architecture which becomes very useful when you have complex requirements like Offline.

10) Large Community

Xamarin uses the .net framework and because of this it’s inherited the pre-existing community, this means that even though it’s a fairly new platform we already have support for Awesome projects like Json.net, Fody and ReactiveExtensions/ReactiveUI.

11) Profitable Innovative Company

Xamarin as a company has a passion for enabling mobile developers to deliver leading experiences. Their products cost money Yes.. but it’s good for us as customers. I see many people complain about the pricing but Xamarin charging money for products allows them to put money back into building amazing products for us. This year at Evolve Xamarin released some great new products including Insights – Analytics Cloud Service, a faster Android emulator, Test Cloud and a performance profiler. In the future Xamarin is on the rise and this means our tools are only going to get better and better.

This is why I choose Xamarin and I think you should too….

If you have any questions regarding Xamarin or need any help please contact me I’m always happy to help.

Thanks

Michael