Research work in the area of mobile technologies, networking technologies and lower-ing of mobile data package cost have increased the use of smartphones and it is growlower-ing day by day. People are using phones for online shopping, to find the route on GPS (Global Positioning System)-enabled phones and for validating some coupons or tickets [1]. Moreover, they are using their mobile devices for activity tracking, fitness purpos-es, diet planning etc. Mobile devices have now become an integral part of people’s life.
The number of mobile phone users is growing by 42% every year but there is still much room available [1].
The emergence and continuous advancement of HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) and other related technologies like CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheet 3) and various Ja-vaScript development frameworks like AngularJS, ReactJS, BackboneJS, PolymerJS etc. have brought revolution in the area of Web development. These inventions have made Web technology more powerful that can compete with native applications in func-tionalities, look and feel. However, HTML5 still cannot be compared to the native ap-plications when it comes to the device feature accessibility and performance. According to the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, “Betting too much on HTML5 was our biggest mistake” [2].
The developer who is building a mobile app probably asks himself “how many devices would be running my app?” [3]. Mobile devices are highly divided into fragments by their operating systems, versions, manufacturer, and screen size. Every platform has its own programming language, development tools, and app store. An application devel-oped for one platform doesn’t work for others. Developing applications for each plat-form takes time if it is supposed to work on all devices. One possible solution might be to develop a Web app. The Web app is usually developed with HTML5 and JavaScript APIs (Application Interfaces) that provides a cross-platform feature. Another solution is the hybrid application, but hybrid applications were not taken into consideration in this thesis.
So, generally, there are three types of mobile applications: native, Web or hybrid. Each of them has its own benefits and drawbacks. Native apps are downloadable and devel-oped for a specific operating system installed on the device and run directly on a mobile device. The Web application doesn’t need to be downloaded, it runs on a browser and a single Web app can work on all devices, it is not platform-dependent. Hybrid applica-tions have properties of both native and Web. Hybrid apps are installed on a device just
like native app but they run in a platform’s Web view. Hybrid apps are platform inde-pendent and run on all devices. They can access core hardware of the device; however they have limited access to the device hardware as compared to the native applications.
But, can these cross-platforms tools provide all the features as native apps do, or Web app can be an alternative solution of a native app? The thesis provides a detailed analy-sis by comparing some core features of both technologies. The results achieved by this comparison analysis will be used by Finn Power that will help them to develop their MES (Manufacturing Execution System) system based on mobile.
1.1 Thesis Description
This thesis is the study of the mobile application development for the industry. Howev-er, the main focus is to study the features of native and Web applications and compare them using a set of criteria. A prototype of a client application was developed for a MES system, this prototype is the part of the novel idea “LeanMES”. The prototype was developed for a FinnPower MES system which already has a similar client application for a desktop PC. FinnPower is one of the partners of the LeanMES project. They are a leading manufacturer of laser systems for industrial application.
The thesis has basically two main parts: development of the mobile user interface for the LeanMES concept and comparison of HTML5 and native technologies on the basis of the test application developed for the Finn Power. So, two versions of the application were developed: native and Web. The native version was developed for Android plat-form while Web application is generic which means it can run on all platplat-forms.
1.2 Research Question
The main area of research for this case study is to compare Web and native technologies (as mentioned above) on the basis of some core features of MES system. In manufactur-ing industries, the applications might have an intensive use of hardware like camera, GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), Magnetometer etc. Also, offline operations are need-ed since the network connection is not available everywhere in a factory floor. In some cases, indoor navigation might be needed for someone who doesn’t know the map of the factory. The performance of the application is also important since lots of manufactur-ing processes run at the same time, so knowmanufactur-ing the status of every process in real-time is of primary importance. Thus, it is important to have smooth and deterministic respon-siveness through UI (User Interface). In addition, push notifications are also an im-portant part to get notifications about the status of the processes. In this research, we will come up with the best solution that is best to implement all these features. We are using design science research methodology in this research. We have created two apps:
Web and native, Web was created using HTML5 and native was created using Java in Android studio. We have tested some features using this test application. Moreover, this comparison is not limited to the implemented features in test application but also we have taken into account other aspects that can play a vital role to differentiate both these technologies.
1.3 Structure of the Thesis
This thesis is structured as follows: Chapter 2 is about the need of mobile based MES and background study from literature. Chapter 3 gives an overview of mobile applica-tion platforms. Chapter 4 consists of the implementaapplica-tion of MES in mobile: Web and native. Chapter 5 discusses the differences between Web and native applications based on the previous literature review, experiments, online surveys and usability evaluation.
Chapter 6 is the analysis of those aspects which we considered in chapter 5 that are re-sponsible for differentiating the two technologies. Chapter 7 is the summary of the the-sis.