International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2013): 4.438 Volume 4 Issue 1, January 2015 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY The Suitability of Native Application for University E-Learning Compared to Web-Based Application Maya Novia Sari 1 , Noor Azian Bt. Mohamad Ali 2 Department of Information Systems, Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology, International Islamic University Malaysia Abstract: The evolution of mobile market has pushed organization and application developers to always catching up with the latest innovation of mobile technology. In terms of mobile application architecture, it is always been a dilemma whether to build an application as a native application or web-based application. This paper discusses about the suitability of mobile application architecture for educational purpose applications such as e-learning. It will focus on native application with a comparison of web-based application. This paper also discusses the importance of hybrid development approach as an alternative strategy in the development of mobile application. Keywords: e-learning, mobile application architecture, web-based application, native application, hybrid development approach. 1. Introduction Nowadays, mobile application architectures have received many attentions. Mobile market has grown very fast. It can be seen by the statistics of 91% of population is using mobile phones while only 9% still uses fixed line phones. Many debates are going about web applications and native applications. Web-based application is a web based program designed to run on any mobile device through a web browser which is available in mobile devices; such as Smartphone, Laptop, and Tablet. Therefore, one development process can be accessed by all devices. On the other hand, native application is an application which resides on the devices, which involves a specific programming for only specific operating system (OS). For example, a specific application programming developed for iOS is only for Apple devices, and an android programming developed for Android devices. As the Smartphone and tablet market growing, native application is quickly advanced and developed. Currently there are over 400,000 applications available on Apple’s App Store and over 200,000 applications available on Android’s Google Play. The most popular OS's for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) are Apple's iOS and Google's Android and they are the only ones that still show growth [1]. Native application development has become a study that can no longer be ignored. Currently, there are a lot of web applications already developed for educational purpose such as e-Learning. However, there is still lack of native application developed in such purpose. This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of native application for e-Learning. It will study the possibility and suitability of native application in offering a better service for educational purpose. 2. Mobile Application Architecture In mobile communication, there are several application architectures available to suit the needs of application users. Understanding each one of them is important to find the most suitable architecture which includes the right combination of complexities and capabilities for the planned application. First application architecture available is a web based application. This type of architecture is the simplest form of application. It is basically a web page or a website that is made to act as an application; it can be accessed or run in the web browser of users’ mobile devices. It applies the same logic of thin client application architecture which means that all of the business logic and enterprise data is stored on the server side. The users’ mobile devices only need an internet browser to access the web application. Therefore, no other software required on the client side because most of mobile devices platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry has their own browser already installed. Because the web applications are installed on the server rather than natively installed on the devices, the development and implementation of this architecture is easier than other type of mobile application architectures. This is the beauty of a web application, by building only one application; it will run on all platforms. Moreover, when there is an update required, the developers only need to update the web page. The web application are generally built with the combination of HTML5 and CSS, using Javascript and other scripting languages to do some of the more complicated tasks. There are also many other alternatives to this though and there is no standard way to build a web app [2]. Another type of application architectures available is a native application. This type of application architecture is very common and popular nowadays. It is an application developed for a single mobile platform and is installed directly onto the device. It can be downloaded from the platforms’ application marketplace such as Google Play for Android or App Store for iOS. Examples of native applications are Angry Bird, WhatsApp, Kindle, and Camera360. There are many advantages that are offered by native application such as providing a better mobile devices’ feature utilization; which will be discussed later on in this paper. Paper ID: SUB15686 2045