The Enterprise Mobility market is already a confusing segment with quite a few players solving different pieces of the mobility puzzle. There are various categories like MCAP, MEAP, MADP, cross-platform tools, mBaaS, MDM/MAM/EMM, etc.. Now, Gartner has released a new category called Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD), which will only add to the confusion of acronyms.
RMAD essentially stands for applying Rapid Application Development (RAD) principles to Mobile App Development. A tool classified as RMAD needs to provide end-to-end capabilities, from backend integration to front-end app development. Essentially, an RMAD can spit out a complete working mobile app very quickly, from a single platform. It should provide faster end-to-end app development capabilities than traditional app development approaches.
WHAT DOES RMAD MEAN?
The RMAD is a generic category of vendors who provide alternate and faster approaches to mobile app development. But not all software platforms in this category are created equal. A lot of vendors have taken different approaches to solve this problem and the right vendor for you will depend on your requirements and your needs.
Why Add Another Category? Why Now?
At appsFreedom, we’ve never felt like we fit into one of the existing categories, such as MADP or BaaS. I have been asking Gartner, and others, to define a more appropriate category for what we do. From that perspective, I am as guilty as others in the industry who feel the need for a new classification to accurately describe this new set of capabilities.
The lack of adoption of mobility in the enterprise is not really caused by the immaturity of technology. The most common problem is a lack of resources to build and deploy mobile apps, as well as, the lack of ability to scale really fast in building and deploying mobile apps.
As the Enterprise Mobility industry has matured, a few niche players, including appsFreedom, started attacking this problem by applying RAD principles to mobile app development. Essentially providing faster approaches to build and deploy apps at scale by enabling more people than only programmers to build apps.
This resulted in various models adopted by different companies. Essentially, a RAD Mobile App development tool was never able to fit into a MEAP/MADP or BaaS or other categories. RMAD tools provide the same capabilities of a complete end-to-end platform, like an MADP, without the negative aspects of a MADP, like long deployment cycles, heavy resource requirements, and such. As more and more vendors started adopting RAD principles in Mobility, it is only natural to define a new category.
I can understand all the collective effort it takes to define a new category and have it accepted by the industry as a whole. I must say, the Gartner Analysts did a pretty good job in picking up, not only the right name, which seems not only natural but covers all the different models that are attempting to tackle this problem.
The RMAD Consists of Various Models of Mobile App Platforms
UI Platforms
UI platforms are more focused on the ease of app development across all mobile devices. While these platforms do provide some backend integration capabilities, they are primarily focused on the UI side with capabilities such as UI Builders, HTML5/Hybrid apps, Forms based tools etc..
Virtualization Platforms
These platforms use virtualization technologies, adapted for mobile. They render existing applications within their server and serve specific field elements on the mobile device. Effectively, it’s running the same desktop or web applications but with a mobile-specific user interface.
BaaS Platforms
A typical BaaS Platform would not fit into a RMAD category per Gartner’s definition. But there are a few BaaS vendors that are expanding to provide basic UI functionality. These vendors are typically stronger on the backend but provide light drag-n-drop UI capabilities.
App Development Platforms
This category of vendors provides complete app development using RAD principles, from UI development to backend integration. This category has the widest variation of platforms. You will find vendors providing a rapid, but simple, drag-n-drop environment. Their backend integrations range from limited to extensive capabilities with a low-code or no-code model. It varies with platforms being based on visual model-driven and meta data-based models. Some platforms are designed for professional developers. Others, like appsFreedom, can be used by both developers and non-developers.
Conclusion
Most IT groups are unable to keep up with the growing demand for mobile apps within organizations. Traditional approaches to delivering mobile apps using conventional coding and MADP tools demand skills that are in short supply. The result is relatively long delivery times.
Alternative, faster approaches are required for rapid delivery by a wider range of people. Tools that meet these needs can be classified as being RMAD tools, a burgeoning market. Users for these tools can come from many areas of an organization, and are not concerned with the intricate details of mobile app mechanics. Their objective is to produce useful apps as rapidly, and as easily, as they might create a presentation using a typical office productivity suite.
Of course, each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. What suits you will depend on your specific requirements. Be sure to peel the layers off the onion and look deep inside on the architectural model before choosing your RMAD platform. What works for one may not work for another. If you would like to start peeling back the onion of appsFreedom, take a test drive of our RMAD platform.