By John Tornow
It’s no secret that the computing world is going mobile. We can do more while on the go than ever before, and the trend won’t slow down anytime soon. Devices get smaller. Computing power gets bigger. Just take a look around and see how many people around you have their faces buried in a mobile device. Smartphone sales are continuously on the rise, and a recent survey states that smartphones make up about one-third of all active mobile devices.1 In late 2010, there were more smartphone devices shipped2 than the combined global market of desktop and laptop computers. That happened two years before analysts predicted it would occur. And the trend is only getting bigger. Analysts have predicted again that “mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013.”3
The mobile movement is more than just selling smartphones. Brands taking advantage of the mobile space have seen massive increases in awareness and sales directly attributed to their mobile presence. For example, in June of 2011, PayPal reported it has seen up to $10 million in mobile payments per day4 and has set its expectations of over $3 billion in mobile payments in all of 2011. Another major player in the mobile landscape is eBay, with nearly $4 billion in mobile sales in 2011 alone.5
These stats are important, but they don’t tell the full story. The real issue is that mobile users visit an average of 24 websites per day, and the Top 50 sites on the Web only account for about 40% of all mobile visits. What does this mean? It’s simple – your brand is already part of the mobile landscape, whether you like it or not. Everyday, there are visitors interacting with your brand on a mobile device, and it is time to engage them properly.
So we’ve agreed that mobile is growing and an important place for your brand to devote attention. Now that that’s settled, it’s time to move on to the meat of the discussion: The mobile web versus mobile applications.
The Argument
While most geeks are elated to see HTML5 in mainstream media recently, its presence has sparked a heated debate between the merits of the mobile web and mobile apps. The basic argument is that HTML5 and other web standards technologies will give developers the opportunity to deliver an immersive high-quality mobile experience to a wide variety of mobile devices and platforms. These immersive experiences have been the main benefit of apps over the past several years. But the recent explosion of more advanced HTML5 standards has reinvigorated the argument. The growth of HTML5 has even caused some pundits to posit that mobile apps are an endangered species6 and even to declare that apps will soon be dead7 altogether.
There is much debate on the proper mix of Web and apps. For example, three of the most relevant mobile companies right now have three very different strategies on mobile: Apple is putting their weight behind apps. Google is split half and half between HTML5 and apps. Facebook has been a huge supporter of HTML5 as its sole platform moving forward. Each company has significant justification for its strategies, yet they are at times radically different from their competition.
So which is it – the HTML5 mobile web or native applications? The real answer is that you don’t have to choose between them. Every mobile solution is different, and your brand should use the best tool for the job. This will almost always involve a mobile website. Sometimes it will include an app as well. The important decision to make is to include mobile as a first-class citizen within your digital strategy. Let’s outline the difference between these platforms.
Native Applications
Native applications (we’ll just call them apps for short) are so called because they run directly (aka natively) on the mobile device for which they were built, without the need for a standard web browser. Apps take advantage of lower-level aspects of a mobile operating system and perform actions that could not be dreamed of from within a web browser. Since these apps are coded with a specific programming language that has been optimized for each device (Objective-C for iOS, Java for Android), they are typically very fast. Apps can interact with other parts of the mobile device outside the app itself, such as its camera, GPS sensors, address book, calendar, microphone and speakers.
Apps are typically installed from a centralized app store (App Store for iOS, Marketplace for Android) and downloaded and stored on the device for easy access. Since apps are installed on a device, they do not require Internet access to function in normal circumstances. Apps also have access to create portions of code that run behind the scenes (otherwise known as background tasks) that can provide the user with timely notifications.
While most of these points are huge reasons to invest in an app strategy, there are significant drawbacks to a native strategy as well. First, you are forcing your users to take the time to download yet another app and add it to their already crowded home screen. You must provide an extremely compelling reason for them to do so. Apps are also subject to review on some platforms. Apple has famously reviewed each app on its App Store, and there is always the chance that after months of work your app could be rejected and never make it to the store.
At a minimum, app development means supporting iOS and Android devices. Arguments can be made to support one over the other, but in most cases you’ll want to support both platforms. This is an expensive and time-consuming process because two completely different applications will need to be developed, tested, approved and released. Ongoing maintenance of these apps on multiple platforms can also be a continuously expensive process.
Apps typically boast a great user experience and, when done correctly, can have significant impact on your brand. The benefit of being installed on a device and having your icon on a user’s home screen can provide long-term access to your mobile brand. In addition, the immersive experience and access to device resources in an app are currently unmatched by the mobile web. However, approval restrictions and the high costs of development and implementation are important aspects to consider when creating your mobile strategy.
The Mobile Web
In the dark ages of the mobile web, sites were served in so-called WAP sites. It was hideous. Most humans simply didn’t appreciate the text-only version of brand websites available back then. Luckily for all of us, the technology has advanced significantly, and starting primarily with the announcement of the iPhone in 2007, the mobile web is now a legitimate place for modern brands to represent themselves.
The modern mobile web is based on the set of technologies commonly referred to as “HTML5.” While HTML5 is part of the mix, we are also using this umbrella term to refer to the unique blend of HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to deliver a web experience through a mobile web browser. Mobile websites are not served from a centralized App Store or Marketplace, but rely instead on domain names (yourbrand.com) and search just like the Web we are all used to. Typically, a mobile site visitor will be redirected from the desktop view to a mobile-optimized view of the same information. Or, if the site is cutting-edge, they can also rely on responsive web design to show a mobile-optimized website without the hassle of separate sites and redirects. See “The Responsive Web: A Web Fit for the Future” for more on this topic.
Mobile websites are great for finding relevant information quickly on the go. Instead of waiting for an app to download, users can quickly access a mobile website and navigate to the content for which they are looking. And, like apps, mobile websites can read a user’s location from the device’s GPS and show relevant localized content.
Even if the mobile web is not as immersive an experience, it has one significant advantage over apps: it works completely cross-platform and requires no installation (and therefore approval) for use. Every major mobile platform’s operating system comes with a web browser installed by default. Your brand loyalists are one tap away from viewing your mobile site no matter what device they’re using. This is especially important as more and more platforms are developed. Offerings from Microsoft and several others are released every year, and with little to no effort, each mobile website is easily accessed on these platforms.
The Winner
There is no clear winner in the debate of apps versus the Web. There likely will never be one. Don’t get caught up in the battle. Just choose the best course for your brand. If your brand requires an immersive solution that uses a significant amount of device resources, you’ll likely need to go with an app. In most cases, you’ll also need a mobile website as well. What’s important is to develop a mobile strategy based on your brand’s specific mobile needs and attack the various platforms based upon that strategy.