Business Apps 2015 - Make a BIG Impact
In episode 26 (http://thedevicepros.com/how-to-create-the-most-successful-business-apps-2015-episode-26)Frank and Alfred invite a special guest to the show, Alan Meeus (https://social.technet.microsoft.com/profile/alan%20meeus/), to talk about universal apps, cross platform apps, modern apps, traditional apps and why business apps 2015 are making a big impact creating digital moments with end users, customers and leadership.
Make a big splash with business apps 2015
Gartner Predicts (http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2284715)By 2015, One-Third of Consumer Brands Will Integrate Payment Into Their Branded Mobile Apps.  That's a lot of companies looking to leverage apps as additional revenue streams, and oh by the way 2015 is now.  If we are gonna make a big splash I think it's important we understand all these different types of "apps" and the when/why/how to leverage the different types and formats.  Firstly, there is the traditional applications. We all know them as executables or .EXE files or even .MSI files. They are packaged, deployed and installed in traditional methods such as manual install or an application management tool like Configuration Manager 2012.

Then we have something the technology world calls apps. By using the shortened version of the word applications technology people are referring to applications which are packaged differently than traditional applications, and targeted as modern OSs and mobile devices.  Typically apps are deployed via a store, think Windows App store, iTunes Store or Google Play Store.  Now that we have an understanding of what apps are, lets talk about a couple categories of apps.
Universal Apps
(http://thedevicepros.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/windows-store-150x150.png)In the world of Microsoft and the emerging Windows 10 release, Microsoft posted details in their blog to share their definition and vision of universal apps (http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/09/30/universal-windows-apps-get-better-with-windows-10).  For Microsoft, universal apps are apps created via visual studio that share a common core, which can have user interface (UI) displays be device type.  Further, a Microsoft universal app is a single app which can span from the full Windows OS, Phone OS and even XBOX.  That, my friends, is all goodness.  If we take a short trip outside Microsoft this term is regularly used in the industry to represent cross platform apps.
Cross Platform Apps
(http://thedevicepros.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/vs-with-ios-300x91.png)From the perspective of Microsoft, lets examine the phrase.  Cross platform refers to the app's ability to run on multiple operating systems from different vendors.  A business example of an industry that does this very well are banks.  They create separate apps for Windows, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android.  This is an excellent technique to make sure they gain a high percentage of market share by covering the major OSs in technology. However, it comes at a considerable cost as much of the code used to write an app for iOS must be re-written for Android or Windows.  While the CxO audience love to gain market share, the do not love the cost of have 3 separate programming teams to create, manage and update 3 separate apps.  This is NOT a cross platform app.  A true cross platform app allows (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/www-_the_wonderful_world_of_windows/archive/2015/02/25/building-cross-platform-apps-with-visual-studio-part-3.aspx) a programmer to use a common code base making use of lets say 25% of their code, and then create apps across multiple platforms with a reduced effort and cost to the business.  What if it could be even better than this??
Cross Platform apps with Visual Studio and Xamarin
If you are a Visual Studio programmer, and have plans to write business apps 2015, please applaud your new best friend, Xamarin (http://xamarin.com/visual-studio).