Designing for Mobile: Mobile Web vs Native Apps
There’s a big debate out there on this topic but there’s no silver bullet. Mobile web and native apps offer different benefits and serve different audiences. You need to look at what experience your app needs to deliver? What you are trying to achieve? What is your business model? What is your budget? Who is your target? etc; weigh the pros and cons of both the mediums and decide what works best for you.
Mobile Web
Reach larger audience
Majority of users don’t own a smartphone and don’t access app stores; they are more likely to use a mobile browser and access the Internet from their mobile phone. The barriers to accessing a site via a browser are lower than those to downloading an app — even for smartphone owners
Lower cost and time to market
The biggest benefit mobile web offers is that you design once and it’ll run on all platforms with minimal tweaking. The fragmented nature of the mobile industry means that porting apps to different platform environments costs money — particularly when including maintenance and promotion costs.
Instant Updates
Whatever changes you make become available instantly to the users
No censor
Some apps will be rejected from App stores (based on their terms) – so how much should you bank your businesses future on a platform you can’t control. The mobile Web does not censor content and allows you to publish when you want and what you want.
Low barrier to entry and no revenue share
Mobile Web has no entry costs, and you get to keep 100% of the revenue
Native Apps
Connectivity
Productivity in a browser depends on constant connectivity, and in the real world data connections can be fleeting. Native apps can be built to interact with users even if offline
Device-based caching
Native apps can cache data persistently, hence, reducing data usage and providing a faster access to the data
Richer experience
Native apps can tap into the device’s functions and features providing richer experience and seamless
Mobile Web
Reach larger audience
Majority of users don’t own a smartphone and don’t access app stores; they are more likely to use a mobile browser and access the Internet from their mobile phone. The barriers to accessing a site via a browser are lower than those to downloading an app — even for smartphone owners
Lower cost and time to market
The biggest benefit mobile web offers is that you design once and it’ll run on all platforms with minimal tweaking. The fragmented nature of the mobile industry means that porting apps to different platform environments costs money — particularly when including maintenance and promotion costs.
Instant Updates
Whatever changes you make become available instantly to the users
No censor
Some apps will be rejected from App stores (based on their terms) – so how much should you bank your businesses future on a platform you can’t control. The mobile Web does not censor content and allows you to publish when you want and what you want.
Low barrier to entry and no revenue share
Mobile Web has no entry costs, and you get to keep 100% of the revenue
Native Apps
Connectivity
Productivity in a browser depends on constant connectivity, and in the real world data connections can be fleeting. Native apps can be built to interact with users even if offline
Device-based caching
Native apps can cache data persistently, hence, reducing data usage and providing a faster access to the data
Richer experience
Native apps can tap into the device’s functions and features providing richer experience and seamless