Potential customers regularly ask us whether native mobile applications are the right choice or if they should opt for developing mobile web sites. Often the amount they would need to invest in one vs the other is their prime consideration but we suggest that you look at the usage and demographic of your client base instead.
Mobile web sites are a rapidly growing way to take advantage of internet access which is fueled by improved speeds of wireless access and the the higher capabilities of modern smart phones. The purpose of a mobile web site is to provide fast information to customers on the go. If your user base will need to access data while on the go but not necessarily on a regular basis a mobile web site is a great choice. A perfect example of this would be for a automotive repair shop that customers may need to look up when their car breaks down out on the road.
IAB has found that a full 61% of customers who visit a website that isn’t mobile-friendly from their smart phone will leave the site to visit a competitor. When considering this single fact the cost of a mobile web site can seem trivial. Often its best to build a mobile web site for purposes like this and native mobile applications for purposes more in tune with the advantages they offer.
It’s important to see the big picture when it comes to smart phones and the mobile web. By 2013, trends suggest there will be more internet-connected mobile devices than people and mobile devices will provide access to over half of the world‘s internet users by 2015.
These trends clearly illustrate that investing in a mobile friendly web site now will pay off for years regardless of whether you have native mobile applications built or not. The best course of action is to develop parallel strategies for the mobile web and mobile applications that take advantage of each mediums strengths are unique characteristics.
Today Juniper Research issued an important new white paper stating that the number of consumers purchasing physical goods remotely via their mobile handsets is expected to increase by nearly 50% over the next two years.
The report goes on to state that numbers will go up to to 580 million purchasers by the end of 2014, up from 393 million this year, further stating that this is due to greater consumer confidence in the mobile device as both a browsing and payment tool. It also shows the increasing importance of mobile as an eCommerce channel, with a large up-shift in mobile as a proportion of online transactions.
The report also states that the average size of mobile purchases would continue to rise, driven by larger volumes of regular, high-value transactions.
Are businesses ready to capitalize on these trends?
According to Juniper Research in the same report, the growth in this area will be constrained by the fact that a majority of retailer sites are not properly optimized for mobile browsing or purchasing. According to Dr. Windsor Holden, “Consumers increasingly expect to be able to buy their products and services via their smartphones and tablets. Companies which do not offer this option face falling behind their competitors.”
There is clearly enormous opportunities for businesses that are willing to maximize there exposure to the market place with properly built mobile applications for both the iPhone and Android platforms as well as mobile web friendly web sites.
Other key numbers
Some of the other numbers that are mentioned in the report are simply staggering. The total annual transaction values from remotely purchased digital and physical goods will hit $730 billion within five years. And we are seeing a fast moving trend of eCommerce moving to smartphones and tablets where the average tablet transaction size already exceed those of desktop and laptop computers. Clearly the purchasing isn’t just a migration, but rather consumers are increasing in their level of confidence for purchasing remotely overall.
If you don’t have mobile applications or at a minimum a mobile friendly web site for your business, now it clearly the time to do so.
If you would like to read all the details in Juniper Research’s fascinating new report, you can download it here.
Web apps are different from native apps in that they are built using languages and standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 web tech, rather than being programmed in a platform specific environment. Therefore, apps developed using web languages can run on pretty much any mobile platform via a standards-compliant web browser. On the other hand, native apps only work on the one platform they were programmed to work on.
So why build native mobile apps? There are several reasons, such the native app technology makes for a superior user experience and they are quicker and easier to access from the interface of most mobile devices. Often native apps are the option that companies should opt for if they are looking to build deeper relationships with existing client bases, but for companies looking to save money or looking to build a presence via mobile search, mobile web development is the right answer.
While we have talked of the advantages of native apps in several previous posts, lets examine the benefits of mobile web development for applications. One key advantage to web apps, is there’s no need to develop for a specific platform. Instead, apps will work on any device that offers a web browser. Additionally, native apps typically takes a bit longer to build than an equivalent web app would, this can be a benefit where timelines are critical.
One area where developing web apps has a pretty strong advantage is with updates. Typical mobile users update their apps very infrequently, therefore, the user base for a particular native app is spread across multiple versions usually. However, having an out-of-date web app is pretty close to impossible. It is a similar situation to loading a website on your desktop or laptop computer. Each time you load a site, you are loading the latest version (unless you have a version in your cache). If we updated the logo on our homepage, you wouldn’t have to go download an update to our web site, you would just see it the next time you visit.
One of the areas where native apps have a strong advantage is their ability to leverage the phone’s hardware seamlessly. Native apps can access your phone’s accelerometer, GPS and camera but, web apps can only access GPS in a limited capacity. Web apps can’t access your phone’s camera or even utilize photos you’ve already taken so a web developed app will certainly not be the right choice in situations where you require those features.