Chapter One

1.1 Introduction to Mobile Application Development

Who is your best friend now?
Hello everyone, I’m Tadesse! and, I’d like to share some thoughts about one of my best friends,
someone who is always loyal and diligent. This friend plays a significant role in my life, especially
when I want to connect with my family and friends. I often want to know more about various
topics, and this friend helps me gather information from different directions, making learning
exciting and accessible. When I’m feeling down, this fried always have something to lift my spirits,
whether it’s entertaining me with games or playing my favorite music which are from online or
offline. This friend also helps me share my ideas with the world through social media, giving me
a platform to express myself. And when it comes to managing my finances, I can do it from
anywhere, making my life so much easier. In short, this companion is always with me, 24/7, ready
to assist me whenever I need it. So, who do you think my best friend is? If you guessed "my Smart
phone” you’re absolutely right! It is always with me. Now, I’d love to hear from you, who is your
best friend?
To answer the above questions pls ask yourself the following questions.
1. Who spends more time with you throughout the day?
2. Who do you turn to for entertainment when you're bored?
3. When you need information or answers foe questions, first what do you do?
4. Who helps you stay connected with friends and family, no matter where they are?
5. When you feel bad or down, who entertain you or provides the comfort you need?
6. How you managing your finances and online shopping?
I hope now you understand from your answer how much you are with your smart phone. To
accomplish all the above things, we must interact with our smart phone. But to what part of our
smart phone, we are going to interact? Defiantly we interact with the applications which are
installed in our smart phone or mobiles. Oh! If those application are vital this much, who developed
them? The answer is a person (developer) who learn and experienced on mobile application
development. Are you interested to be a mobile application developer? I hope your answer is yes
and here we are going to learn about mobile application development.

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Terminologies:
 Mobiles: - Portable electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, designed for easy
handling and usability. They allow users to access information, communicate, and run
applications anywhere, making them highly accessible for various tasks on the go.
 Application: - A software program designed to perform specific tasks for the user, often
available for mobile devices, computers, or web browsers. There are 3 commonly known
applications. Those are mobile apps, desktop applications, and web apps. Here Mobile apps
are our business.
 Software development: The process of requirements gathering, designing, implementing/
coding, testing, deploying and maintaining software applications.
 Platform. A computing environment that allows software applications to run. This can
refer to operating systems (like Android or iOS).
 Mobile application development: - The processes of designing implementing testing
deploying and maintaining of application which can run on mobile device like tablet and
smartphone.
Historical background of mobile application development
The current smart phone is not designed and the application in it is also not developed over night
like what it looks today. It passes the evolution over years. The first smart phone is the IBM product
“Simon Personal Communicators” by Simon Buckingham who is IBM engineer. It contains
application like world time clock and colander.

Figure 1-1 IBM Simon Personal Communicators

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The evolution accelerated with the launch of smartphones in the early 2000s, leading to a rapid
expansion of mobile content and applications. In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone and its App
Store, revolutionizing the mobile app market and making it accessible to developers worldwide.
The App Store gives people around the world a safe and trusted place to discover apps that meet
high standards for privacy, security, and content. The App Store opened on July 10, 2008, with an
initial 500 applications available.

Figure 1-2 First iPhone 2007 Figure 3 App Store from 2008-now
The Apple competitor Google announced the Android operating system in November 2007, and
the first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released on September 23, 2008. T-Mobile G1 (also
called the HTC Dream in some regions) was the first Android phone ever released, back in October
2008.

Figure 1-5 Play Store 2008-now

Figure 1-4 T-Mobile G1

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The Google Play Store was released on March 6, 2012. It combined Google’s previous services,
Android Market, Google Music, and Google eBookstore, into a single platform for apps, games,
books, movies, and music.
Android apps are primarily built using Java and Kotlin, two programming languages optimized
for Android’s open-source platform. Java, being older and widely supported, provides a solid
foundation for many Android apps, while Kotlin, introduced by Google as an official Android
language in 2017, brings modern features and simplicity, making it popular for new Android
projects. On the other hand, iOS apps for iPhones are developed using Swift and Objective-C.
Swift, introduced by Apple in 2014, is a fast, safe, and easy-to-read language that has largely
replaced the older Objective-C, though the latter is still used in legacy iOS applications.
Both platforms offer tools and languages optimized for their unique system architectures, making
each language well-suited for its respective platform. Facebook release Reactive native in 2015
for cross-platform mobile application development. It uses java script as a programming language.
After 2 years google release flutter framework again for cross platform development. It uses dart
programming language. The idea of those framework is writing single code base and run-in
multiple machines.
1.2 Types of Mobile Applications
Native Application
These applications are called native because they are written in a programming language that is
native to a particular platform. For Android, this language can be Java or Kotlin, while for iOS it
is Objective-C or Swift.
Example: - Apple music and WhatsApp.
Hybrid Application
Hybrid apps combine elements of native and web apps. They are built using web technologies but
wrapped in a native shell that allows them to be installed on a device like a native app.
Example: - Instagram and Uber
Cross-Platform application
Specifically designed to work on multiple platforms from a single codebase. Cross-platform
frameworks like React Native and Flutter are designed to provide a near-native experience,
focusing on both iOS and Android while maintaining a single source code.
Example: - Airbnb and Alibaba

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Progressive web Apps
A progressive web app (PWA) is a web app that uses modern web technologies to provide an app-
like experience to users. It combines the best of web and mobile app experiences. It’s essentially
a web application that behaves like a native mobile app on a device, offering similar functionalities
without requiring users to download it from an app store. PWA development is performed by using
technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Example: - Starbucks and Pinterest
1.3 Mobile Development Platforms
When we talk about mobile application android and iOS are the two common and most known
mobile operating system. Android developed by google and iOS is by Apple. App development
requires requirement analysis, design planning, development phase, testing, and deployment of the
app. To develop these apps, we need a mobile app development platform that can help in
developing a native, hybrid and cross-platform.
Android
Android is an open-source and widely used operating system mobile operating system introduced
by Google. Android applications are a software developed to run on android device. The file
extension for those application is APK (Android Package). This app can be codded using the
programming language like java and Kotlin. Android studio is the popular known and the google
official Android Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to develop mobile apps.
iOS
iOS is Apple's mobile operating system designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices. Unlike
Android, which is open-source, iOS is a closed-source system developed and maintained
exclusively by Apple. Apps for iOS are written primarily in Swift and Objective-C, and they are
distributed with the file extension. ipa (iOS App Store Package). The official development
environment for iOS applications is Xcode, an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
created by Apple that provides tools for designing, coding, and testing iOS applications.
1.4 Mobile App Development Lifecycle
Mobile application development lifecycle is a steps or a series of phases to build a functional and
high quality mobile app. Similar to other software development lifecycle, mobile application
development also has several key phases starting from idea and plan up to maintenance. The
following are the lifecycle of mobile app development.

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 1. Idea and Planning
Developing a software is one of the solutions in real world problems. Every software begins with
an initial problem or need that drives its development. Assume there is a super market and suffer
with a problem with unable to sell its product as expected. When the owner of that super market
study why not most people come and buy their product, one of the reasons may be the customer
has not had enough time to visit their supermarket. So, here the owner of that super market got a
problem. The idea to solve this may be why not develop a mobile app that allow customer to visit
our super market, order the product, pay online and finally we deliver it to their home.
This is the initial idea for mobile app development. Next to this idea, defining the app purpose
clearly, check the target audience, what will the mobile app features and its goal is studied. Market
research also conduct in this initial step.
2. Design
After the first phase finished the next task is design the mobile app to show what it looks like at
the end of the development. Designer design the app user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
Wireframes and prototypes are created in this phase to visualize the layout, color, font, navigation
and others.
3. Development
In this phase the developer writes the code to implement the real app based on its functionality.
Both front-end (UI and UX) and back-end (server and database) development are included here.
4. Testing
Testing is essential to ensure the app is developed based don the client requirement and check its
functional, bug-free, and meets performance standards. This stage includes testing for usability,
compatibility, security, and performance, with both automated and manual testing methods.
5. Deployment
Deployment in mobile application development is preparing to release. This includes configuring
the application for the respective app stores (Google ply store or Apple app store).
6. Maintenance
We observer different mobile application with different version. E.g., v1, v1.1, v2, v2.22. this is
happened when the developer got comments and problems from different direction about the
application. Or the client may need another additional feature on the previous app. At this time the
modified or the next version is released.

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 1.5 Importance of Mobile Applications in Today’s World
Growth in Usage
Did you remember how much our mobile is with us. Now a days Mobile apps have become the
primary way people interact with digital content. According to Statista, in 2023 over 299 billion
apps were downloaded, generating $935 billion in revenue. And according to Data.ai one person
4.8 hours on mobile devices.
Businesses
How many businesses app installed on your phone? CBE, telebirr, other financial or deliver app
are example of business mobile apps. Many companies rely on mobile apps to enhance customer
engagement, streamline commerce, and deliver services. Apps allow businesses to reach
customers conveniently and personalize experiences to foster brand loyalty.
Innovation
Mobile applications drive advancements across various industries. For instance, healthcare apps
facilitate remote monitoring, FinTech apps simplify banking and financial transactions, EdTech
apps enhance remote learning, and entertainment apps provide instant access to media and gaming.
Job Opportunities
Why you learn mobile application development?
The demand for skilled mobile developers continues to rise, as businesses and industries require
experts to create and maintain these essential applications. This demand fuels job growth in both
Android and iOS development, as well as in cross-platform development frameworks.
1.6 Challenges in Mobile Application Development
Platform Fragmentation
The diversity of devices and screen sizes poses a significant challenge. Developers must ensure
that the app performs well across various devices, from smartphones to tablets, each with different
screen resolutions, hardware capabilities, and operating systems. Handling different screen sizes,
operating systems, and device capabilities requires a lot of effort. Applications must work well on
a high-end tablet as well as on an older, low-spec smartphone can be daunting.
Performance Optimization: Apps need to run smoothly across devices. Achieving a seamless
user experience means thorough testing and optimizing code to avoid crashes and delays, ensuring
that resources are efficiently managed.

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User Experience (UX)
How to create the mobile application that can easily adapted by users? How can we create the
application than can impress human attention in first view and familiar with user? Crafting an
intuitive interface across platforms isn't just about aesthetics. It involves understanding user
behavior and preferences, making sure the app is user-friendly, and retaining consistency in the
user interface.
Security
Why America accuses China due to TokTok at this time?
Protecting user data is paramount. Ensuring that the app follows best security practices, from
encryption to secure authentication, is critical to maintain user trust and comply with data
protection regulations. Any slip-ups can lead to serious consequences, both for users and the
company behind the app.

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