The Ultimate Mobile Showdown: Native Vs Web Apps

The growth of mobile web development comes about at a time when we are observing exponential increments in mobile web consumption. According to the 2009 Quantast Mobile Trends Report, last year saw a 110% increase in mobile web consumption in the US alone whilst worldwide growth stacks at 148% as measured by growth in pageviews.

As TechCrunch contributor Scott Merrill puts it “You can spend your time and energy and precious development resources to build a terrific platform-specific application, only to sit in frustration as it languishes in some opaque approval process. And then you get to do it all over again on the other major platforms, increasing your development costs and complexity. Or you can spend your time and energy and precious development resources making a terrific mobile-optimized view into your existing web presence.”

Mobile Web vs Mobile App Development

With the advancement and propagation of the mobile web, what will the future look like for mobile app development companies such as 2359 Media, Mobiquest and Omnitoons?

Objectively, the mobile web brings about certain advantages over mobile apps. Mainly, it enables site owners to have an opportunity to track user behavior on their sites. Once released, user behavior can be measured by analytics, tracked using social media and through forums. This instant feedback process enables owners to quickly determine problem areas and make the necessary corrections.

Moreover, a mobile website enables the brand owner, to refine the experience and publish changes to the entire user base without requiring user action. This means everyone will see the new experience upon their next visit. On the other hand, mobile apps require more action on the part of the user as they have to download the apps (even pay for it) and install updates frequently. Users who do not install updates are subjected to sub – optimal site experiences and this therefore results in less than desirable adoption rates.

Shift Towards Mobile Web App Development

As if testimony to the aforementioned points, local company Chlkboard, founded by SGE co – founder Bernard Leong and partner Saumil Nanavati, launched their location based service as a mobile web app instead of a a native app.

When asked in a previous interview with SGE on why Chlkboard chose to launch as a web app instead of a native iPhone app, Saumil said: “Primarily, we do not have to go through the occasional political rigors of formal approvals as experienced for native apps. It also allows us to rapidly iterate our offering without the cumbersome app-version-updates.”

Statistics taken for the first 10 working days after Chlkboard’s launch seems to affirm the duo’s decision: Chlkboard managed 11,500 impressions and more significantly over 35 retailers (inclusive of Arena in Clarke Quay, Otaku House and Standing Sushi) joining them as their champions all within this period.

Additionally, it also seems like more companies are moving from mobile app development to mobile web app development as handset functionalities become more and more web accessible with the advancement of HTML5 and Web App-centric SDK’s like Palm’s Mojo. Even Google has thrown their weight behind web app development with Vic Gundotra, Google VP of Engineering declaring during a panel at Mobilebeat 2009: “We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”

Whilst we remain unsure of exactly when mobile web app will take over native development, the time might be soon and it will be prudent to take stock of which way the wind is going to blow.

Image courtesy of: Mike Baird

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