This is me, Alan

Smartphones just keep getting better and better. Bigger screens, more processing power, bigger memory and storage, better operating systems. But the best part of all is connectivity, and it is this that makes them especially powerful devices for the business user.

A mobile web application is a web page specially designed for viewing on smartphones, that communicates with a server and database. It needs no software installing on the device other than the existing browser, and it will work on any smart device be it iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Nokia. Imagine your mobile operatives having access to customer records, technical data, pricing tools, on their smartphones. This is what I can do for you.

Native Applications In addition to mobile web applications there are native applications that run directly on the device and can provide almost any functionality you can imagine. The photo below shows an application running on an HTC Android 2.2 device that communicates with a remote environmental controller, and enables the user to configure it's settings and take measurements- from anywhere in the world. More recent versions of Android have much nicer controls and the bigger screens of more recent devices allow a less cramped layout.

mobile app

Android applications use the Java programming language together with XML to specify the user interface layout.

iOS applications run on Apple iPhones and iPads, and can use either the Swift programming language or the lower-level Objective-C.

Mostly, clients require the same look and feel on a variety of devices and so very often, separate Android and iOS, and potentially mobile Windows as well, apps have to be developed that essentially do the same thing.