Why Build a PowerApps iOS App?
Mobile applications have become the go-to for reaching and communicating with customers and improving productivity in the workplace. And, with the increase in popularity, the accessibility of mobile apps has changed. Instead of only being available to large organisations, small businesses can also get a piece of the action. If your business hasn’t already developed an app, then the chances are that it’s on the horizon. Microsoft’s PowerApps solution puts the power in your hands to build your own simple iOS applications or to use a PowerApps developer to take your ideas to the next level.
The Difference Between PowerApps and Traditional Development
One of the key questions when it comes to developing a mobile app is which platform to choose. Android and iOS control the vast majority of the market, but for traditional development you need to develop separately for each platform. Either way, you want to build an intuitive, secure app that will meet your business requirements and integrate with enterprise systems. This is where PowerApps comes into play. The service provided by Microsoft enables businesses to create iOS applications that also run on Android, Windows and with almost any internet browser. Instead of having to create an app for each operating system, you can create one app across all systems, cut costs and maximise resources.
PowerApps offers some significant benefits compared to traditional development that you’ll certainly want to consider before developing an iOS app:
- Development effort – with PowerApps, there is no need for extensive code writing or specialised development skills.
- Experience – no programming experience is required to build with PowerApps, whereas iOS requires a profound knowledge of Objective-C or Swift.
- User interface – commonly used controls are available in PowerApps to make it easy to build an attractive and powerful user interface.
- Responsive design – PowerApps development natively supports mobile devices across all platforms without requiring framework support.
- Integration – out-of-the-box connectors are available from Microsoft that require much less effort than traditional development and third party products.
- Automation – notification, data collection and automated approvals simplify decision making without the need for custom implementation.
- Reporting – sophisticated reports and dashboards deliver data visualisations without adding more complexity to the development process.
What Can a PowerApps Developer Achieve
PowerApps has quickly become the low-code platform of choice for developing cross-platform mobile applications. The product is comprehensive, with incredible integration capabilities and a growing ecosystem of connectors. With the new Excel-style Fx development language, AI features that are accessible to citizen developers and tooling for user experience and mobile development, you can create incredible results.
There are two principal types of apps that can be developed using PowerApps. Both enable users, whether citizen or professional developers, to create business apps and share similar components. However, the difference lies in user control and use cases:
- Canvas Apps – these apps have a visual canvas and a drag and drop interface for elements such as controls, actions and images. They are truly low-code, although understanding excel operations is helpful. Users have full control and apps have a high degree of creativity and flexibility. Canvas apps are perfect for mobile devices and are often used for business apps such as data recording, event registration, and checklists.
- Model-Driven Apps – these apps follow a data-first approach. Users don’t have as much control over layout and functionality as the app conforms to the data. However, they are able to generate data models for more complex and sophisticated business applications. To achieve this, though, they require more technical knowledge. Model-driven PowerApps are ideal for expanding business processes and workflows, and creating business logic from rules, processes and forms.
Whether you want to automate processes, enable analytics, empower chatbots, incorporate AI or enable process mining, the Microsoft Power Platform can deliver. The solution has the most complete set of low-code tools to enable everyone, regardless of their technical ability, to solve problems at scale.
How much you can achieve, however, depends on your level of expertise. The great thing is that anyone can quickly create a simple system. To build more complex functionality, though, you may need a better understanding or an experienced PowerApps developer.
Developers are able to write code to extend the basic functionality of simple PowerApps to make them into more powerful systems.
What Will Power Apps Development Cost You
It is difficult to put a cost on app development as every business, project and app is unique. However, Instead of thinking about the cost of PowerApps development, you might want to consider how it compares to the alternatives. A recent report by Forrester stated that the average cost to develop an application is 70% less with PowerApps. The reduced development cost comes down to the shorter development time and the ability for non-developers to build applications. However, even if a professional PowerApps developer is needed for more complex projects, costs are significantly lower as they can hit the ground running with the basics covered by the low-code platform.
By building a PowerApps iOS app, you can get your app to market quicker and focus on generating revenue for your business. What’s more, maintenance and management will be less over the lifetime of your app. PowerApps enables you to build mobile apps that are uniquely tailored to your business needs faster than ever before.