作者：Mike Shaw

5app首席技术官Tim King为各大游戏公司罗列出了10种能够帮助他们降低应用开发成本的方法。

减少应用开发成本的方法多种多样，特别是当你想要创造一款跨平台应用时。以下便是来自Tim King的建议。

1.一开始便明确目标手机平台。不要起初想着先开发iPhone应用，然后再转向Android平台，因为这只会加重你的项目管理成本，即你将面对两次开发过程。

2.在项目一开始便确定应用的功能，让设计师能够遵循着这一功能进行设计。避免与设计师频繁开会，因为如果你在开发过程中不断添加新功能，最终只会无限延长整个设计过程。

tech_apps(from campusm.com)

3.确保你的设计师能够有效地应对不同分辨率。针对320 x 240的屏幕设计应用与设计iPad应用截然不同。为了适应更大的屏幕规格，你需要创造出更大的图像。

4.如果你正在制作一款跨平台应用，你便可以使用JavaScript，HTML5以及CSS等工具去完成所有创作，因为它们是平台与平台之间的标准语言。市场上还存在着许多不同的框架能够帮助你完成应用开发。

有些工具只适用于两大主要的手机操作系统，即Android和iOS，但是你也可以考虑那些能够支持黑莓或者Windows 8的工具；而如果选择塞班能够帮助你提高用户基础，你更应该毫不犹豫地选择它。

5.不要在你的JavaScript中使用任何web技术，如Ajax（游戏邦注：创建交互式Web应用程序而无需牺牲浏览器兼容性的流行方法）。如果开发者拥有稳定的无线信号，这种技术便能够发挥功效，但是如此你的用户便会因为一个嘈杂的图标，甚至是数据丢失或重复而抱怨连连。

6.确保你的应用能够离线运行。如果你的应用只能在连接网络时才能运行，那么对于那些住在偏远地区，待在封闭的办公室中或者乘坐地铁的用户来说便不再有吸引力，

7.如果你试图向用户的手机推送数据，你就需要确保当应用处于后台时这一功能也能发挥功效。这时候你便可以考虑使用告示方法，你肯定不希望用户只能在运行应用时才能接收到新数据吧。

8.如果你使用的是一个经过认证且包含了测试通信库的框架，你便可以省下不少测试过程。

9.如果你正在使用后端服务器，你就需要确保它能够通过网络服务接收到数据以及通用标准，如JSON或XML。对于你的手机系统以及网页来说，这便是最基础的元素。

10.确保你使用的框架能够有效地调试应用。移动应用开发者通常使用手机模拟器进行调试，但是当用户用手机进行实际操作时总是会遇到许多于模拟器中不曾出现的问题。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Ten ways for enterprises to reduce the cost of apps

by Mike Shaw

Part two of 5app CTO Tim King’s advice on how to keep mobile business apps reasonably priced.

Following on from his article on how much mobile business apps should cost, Dr. Tim King of 5app lists ten ways for enterprises to reduce the costs of app development:

There are several ways to reduce these costs, especially if you intend to make a cross-platform app. Here are some suggestions:

1.Decide on your target mobile phone platforms at the start of your project. Don’t fall into the trap of working on an iPhone app first and then think about Android later because it will be much more expensive in project management terms, as you’ll almost certainly need two sets of developers.

2.Specify the functionality of the app carefully at the start of the project and let the designers get on with designing it. Don’t have regular meetings with the designer where you add more functionality as you go along as this will extend the design process considerably.

3.Ensure your designers cope well with different resolutions. The design for a 320×240 screen will be very different from an iPad. Consider having larger images for the larger screen sizes.

4.If you are making a cross-platform app, then consider doing nearly everything in Javascript, HTML5 and CSS, as they are the only languages that are standard between platforms. There are many different frameworks on the market that will help you do this.

Some will offer support for just the two main phone operating systems, Android and iOS, but consider using one that supports BlackBerry and intends to support Windows 8; and if it is important to your user base, ageing Symbian.

5.Don’t use web techniques such as Ajax in your Javascript. It will work when your developers are testing it with a good solid wi-fi signal, but your real users will hate you for it when they are confronted with a busy icon, or even worse, have their data lost or duplicated.

6.Make sure your app works offline. If your app can only work when connected to the internet, then it’s not going to be useful to those who live in rural areas, sit in metal-framed offices or use the Underground.

7.If you are pushing data to the phone, make sure this works when the app is in the background. Think notifications; you don’t want to only receive new data when the app is running in the foreground.

8.You can save yourself a lot of testing if you use a proven framework that contains a tested communication library.

9.If you are using a back-end server, ensure it can accept data via web services and accept common standards such as JSON or XML. This can then be the basis for your mobile system and also your web pages.

10.Make sure the framework you use allows you to easily debug your app. The only debugging support on mobiles is normally provided by a phone simulator, and often problems will be experienced on the actual handsets that don’t occur on the simulator.(source:mobile-ent.biz)