When it comes to mobile development, removing complexity will save both time and money. With the spiraling variety of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, this has become a major issue. Here are four reasons to simplify support for the proliferation of mobile devices with a single development platform:

 1.        It’s Not all About Apple and Android

Should organizations just concentrate on a handful of leading devices and forget about everyone else? No. Simply having Android and iPhone apps is not a mobile strategy, regardless of how many different types of handsets you target.

While Android is currently the dominant OS player in the device market, there is competition for the second spot between Apple’s iOS/Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Furthermore, Gartner says there are 1,122,213 ‘other’ and 34,722 RIM (thousands of units) devices shipped globally which represents a huge market.

2.      Time to Market

Time to market is a source of competitive advantage so why when looking to support any mobile device on the market would you waste time developing internally what can be purchased quickly?

With more than 1.6 million apps on just Android and iOS, instead of spending time getting to market, your developers need to spend time understanding what happens to an app after it is downloaded and how to get users to keep using it.

 3.      The User Experience

The user experience is paramount, and failure to meet the demands of your users and customers on the device of their choice, is a failure to service your customers at all. It is no business secret that customers are hard won and easily lost, and that the cost of customer retention is significantly lower than customer acquisition. More importantly, though, is customer and user confidence and the relationship they have with your brand. Your good name is not something to be meddled with.

There are plenty of real-world examples where developing to optimize a mobile app for speed and scale for just one device takes a lot of resource. This is a very important consideration because development times around quality assurance (QA) and validation are often long and costs can skyrocket.

4.      Replicating Savings

According to new data from Canalys, global shipments of notebooks, tablets, smartphones, and feature phones are poised to reach 2.6 billion units by 2016. The research firm also predicts that the overall mobile device market is expected to grow 8 percent annually.

Tablets are expected to be the fastest-growing category of the mobile market with an annual growth rate of 35 percent. Smartphones are projected to follow with an 18 percent annual growth rate. By 2016, smartphone shipments will be double the 695 million logged in 2012.

The single solution for pushing data to any mobile device is extremely compelling. It’s important to remember when building a business case or strategy for mobile, that these savings will continue to be realized and replicated every time a new device comes onto the market.  A single solution becomes a long-term strategy and view of the market.