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Browser-based mobile apps vs. native apps. It is a serious debate of about three years. And pretty much since the beginning of that debate, there’s been a general undercurrent among the Internet community that browser-based is good and native is bad. But Native is dominating despite serious handicaps, and browser-based apps need to catch up.
Clearly, organizations are realizing the growing importance of the mobile web channel as a way to build brand awareness and customer loyalty, but many are unaware that there are new and innovative approaches to the native mobile app that leverage the browser and greatly facilitate the participation. consumers through the exponential number of mobile device wars.
The NATIVE way.
Mobile apps are nothing new. Hundreds of thousands of productivity, games, utility and entertainment apps abound in stores like Apple’s iTunes or Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, available for free but mostly paid apps, through a variety of models. Apps redefined usability and interaction on mobile phones, especially touchscreen devices and now tablets. But the native way comes at a price: significant development costs plus maintenance and distribution costs. Not to mention the reliance on app stores and the continuous cycle of installing and updating. So for commercial mobile apps, the downsides can be offset by the business model, for informational mobile apps, which are essentially free, the downsides are paid for in cash.
One of the prerequisites for this native approach is the extensive infrastructure required for basic distribution and maintenance updates. And beyond the distribution infrastructure, organizations need to create custom versions of the app for each of the mobile platforms it will run on (Android, Mac O/S, RIM, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.), thereby which in turn also requires personal updates for end users to install and update. For business applications it is not a big obstacle, for informational applications and for companies with a limited amount of resources to implement, it is not an obvious choice.
Native has its advantages; apps work offline, which is particularly interesting for games and native apps can take advantage of proprietary features of the native platform; in iPhone apps, you can take advantage of tilt angle or device movement, provided of course your apps need that capability . For media and entertainment, native apps can be an additional revenue stream, as apps can incur a new recurring revenue stream. But for most companies, the apps will be free, so there won’t be any additional incentive to build native apps.
The way of the mobile browser
The technical and financial barriers to overcome in the native app approach are too high for most companies and their marketing staff. They need to find an alternative way to enter the mobile web market and the mobile market. Small and medium-sized organizations are still struggling to get a third-generation website, or Web Presence, up and running, not to mention now dealing with three or four different content management, distribution, and maintenance platforms.
Taking a look from a different angle, we might consider giving customers a mobile web experience instead of an app experience. And that approach is made possible through newly developed standards like HTML5 and CSS3, combined with Javascripts that optimize a website’s content for a first-class mobile user experience. Applications can be easily replicated through the browser, without the need for a new and different underlying platform. Simply put, you are leveraging your existing website content on a mobile platform, accessible from any mobile device or tablet and regardless of the operating system and mobile browser used on the device or tablet.
The benefits of mobile web applications
For the mobile application provider
The most obvious advantages for the application provider are the ability to leverage their existing investment in a website or content management system on the mobile platform. No new content creation, no new delivery platform, no hardware and software investments required, just content optimization for a robust mobile experience. And some content management platforms now offer this as an add-on to their existing platform for building non-mobile websites.
Another big advantage is that the approach is technology agnostic, and that with a browser-based mobile application it covers the entire mobile and tablet market, regardless of the manufacturer and underlying operating systems used. IOS covers about 52% of the mobile market and as such is an extraordinary number, but leaves 48% to others. Building native apps on Apple gives you 52% market coverage, building browser-based mobile apps gives you 100% coverage, and you don’t need to worry about what percentage of your customers will be covered by building a native app on Apple. Manzana. Applications
The third and probably the biggest advantage for a small or medium business is the fact that your cost to update and maintain will be shared with the cost to update and maintain your main site. So one investment cost for the main site and the mobile site, one URL or domain, and one cost to upgrade and maintain both platforms.
For users or customers
For users, they don’t have to download an app or any maintenance updates, but instead “call” a URL through their mobile browser that instantly delivers the most up-to-date app to their device. The URL can then be marked as a local app on your device’s desktop for repeat use. In cases where users just want a one-time interaction with an app, they receive immediate access without downloading, while organizations seize a unique opportunity to excite their audience.
Conclution
The debate about native apps vs. mobile web apps isn’t so much which is better, but which is best suited to the needs of your organization and your customers. Business apps are best served through native apps, but for most organizations that see a mobile web presence as an extension of their main web presence, browser-based mobile apps are an alternative that is technically and financially much more affordable. easy to implement and that will give customers the mobile experience they are looking for, browsing your website.