Mobile Applications wrapping

Wrapping vs. Fusing with Appdome

Appdome is a general purpose, open integration layer for mobile applications. Appdome takes an SDK or any functionality and transforms it into something that goes beyond single purpose, single platform and single use case integrations.

With Appdome, multiple mobile services can be combined with a single app, quickly and painlessly. To use Appdome, a mobile developer needs zero access to source code. There are no additional agents loaded on the mobile device. All the capabilities are integrated directly into the native app binary without impacting application level APIs. Multiple fused services can co-exist inside the same application.

With Appdome, the user experience, performance, stability and functionality of the app are maintained. Even run time decisions can be made, enabling or disabling certain capabilities based on organizational policy so that unneeded features aren’t running and thus aren’t eating up system resources.

 
In contrast, app wrappers rely on intercepting or modifying application layer APIs. Wrapping stands between the native application functions and the EMM or MAM and can actually collide with applications. For example, when a mobile application uses frameworks or is built using MADPs (Mobile Application Development Platforms), basic EMM functions such as containerizing files becomes an impossible challenge for wrappers. The wrapper is sensitive to loading order, framework usage and application logic. Wrappers often cause applications and frameworks to fail. Interacting with a huge and ever-growing number of possible APIs leaves a lot of room for error. It also leaves a lot of functionally walled off by the wrapper, making wrapping undesirable for most developers. Wrapping also poses problems for commercial apps. ISVs typically don't support wrapping as it interferes the apps native operations.

The following chart illustrates an abbreviated, high-level comparison of wrapping and Appdome.
 

                          Wrapping                                                                          Appdome

Limited by platform, vendor, version and use case	Open across all platforms, vendors, versions and use cases
Applies only to specific app functions with a highly intrusive approach that isolates and modifies application capabilities	Applies to the entire app with a non-intrusive approach, maintaining the intended functionality of the app
Months to implement; months to re-implement in a new app version	Minutes to implement; minutes to re-implement in a new app version
Manual process requiring heavy developer resources	Automated process with an intuitive, simple and powerful cloud-based platform
Only one SDK per app	Multiple SDKs and additional functionality like security, even from different vendors, can be fused to a single app
Unsupported on AppStore or GooglePlay	Fully supported on AppStore, GooglePlay and enterprise stores
Intercepts and modifies application layer APIs, commonly resulting in performance, stability, functionality and usability issues	Does not intercept or modify the application layer APIs, instead, fusion operates by attaching to the app and communicating with the operating system's APIs at the POSIX level, resulting in greater extensibility as well as ensuring performance, stability, functionality and usability
Requires additional frameworks and libraries to operate	Fully integrated into the binary without the need for additional frameworks and libraries
Restricted visibility into overall application behavior makes this approach less secure	Complete visibility into how the application operates, interacts with the mobile device and interacts with other services yields greater security

 

 We hope Appdome is living up to our mission of simplifying your mobile integrations.