There are two main ways to create mobile applications. The following post lays out advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.
Native Apps – applications that are installed directly on smart phone devices (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.).
Advantages
- Cool Factor – “There’s an app for that.” Being in the Apple App Store or Google Android App Market is great marketing for an organization.
- Application Icon – When an app is installed its icon is placed onto the user’s smart phone desktop.
- Experience – Native apps are generally faster and more fun to use.
- Hardware Access – Native apps can easily take advantage of a smart phone’s GPS or camera.
- Offline Mode – App features can be developed that do not require an internet connection.
Disadvantages
- Many Platforms – Each application is unique to its platform. For example, an iPhone app will only work on an iPhone. If you want it to also work on a Blackberry, you will need to create another application tailored to Blackberry. New frameworks are being developed to help ease this pain.
- Many Versions – When a new version of an existing native app is released, the users of the native app will need to download and install the update. People are not forced to update; therefore there will be multiple versions of the application in production.
Mobile Friendly Web Application – web application that is easily viewable and usable on a smart phone.
Advantages:
- Reaches everyone – Anyone that has an internet enabled phone can view the application.
- Web application already exists – If a web application already exists it can be updated to accommodate mobile phones.
- One Version – Updating the website updates all the application users.
Disadvantages:
- Not as cool – There is no app store or app icon. You need to access that application through your mobile browser.
- Must be online – The application only works when you have internet connectivity.
- Limited hardware – Although it is technically possible to access some smart phone hardware from a website, it is not as seamless.
- Optimized look and feel – Each smart phone has its own look and feel and screen dimensions. Optimizing the web experience for specific smart phones requires implementing various mobile stylesheets.
The correct approach in any given situation depends upon the experience you are trying to achieve. It is important to note that this decision is not mutually exclusive. In some cases it makes sense to do both.
6 Comments
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I think, in the end, neither applications written in their native environments or mobile websites will be successful in terms of being cost effective or maintainable.
Native applications require expert knowledge of the SDK, Language, and various other tools. Mobile web applications — for now — require a diverse set of CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc for each platform; keeping in mind it still does not provide a “native” experience. It almost always require data connectivity also (HTML5 Storage will help this).
I think we will instead see an emergence of frameworks with a low barrier of entry and language familiarity that produce native applications for each platform under one codebase. Keep an eye on frameworks like “Titanium”:http://www.appcelerator.com/ and “Rhodes Mobile”:rhomobile.com/. I imagine they could be the next evolution in mobile development.
It has become important to close the gap between native and web app. We are working on providing a service that tries to reduce the gap.
If you have a mobile website, you will be able to create a cost-effective iPhone and Android app. Come check it out…
I think you may have overlooked one of the biggest advantages of the mobile website: assuming web is an appropriate venue for the application, it will likely be _much_ cheaper and faster to develop than the native application.
This is partly because web applications can be developed more quickly than native applications. And partly because there is a larger population of strong web developers than strong iPhone or Android developers.
Also, “here is a link to a recent article”:http://www.alistapart.com/articles/apps-vs-the-web/ on A List Apart about the same subject.
Thanks for the comment and link Jim.
I definitely agree with you that there is a much larger population of strong web developers. This is certainly an advantage for building a mobile friendly web application.
I do not agree that building the mobile friendly web application is always quicker. A lot depends on the functionality and the testing matrix.