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It would be a clear sarcasm to mention that mobile apps are booming, IDC forecasts that worldwide downloads will touch 76.9 billion in 2014 and will be worth $35 billion. Because of this many companies are considering a leap onto the mobile app bandwagon. But does your company really need a native mobile app; is this the best way forward for your brand? There are other options available which will enable you to make the most of the mobile revolution which may be better fitted to your firm's objectives, target audience, strategy and eventually budget. We have put together an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of native mobile apps, web apps and mobile optimised websites to help you decide the best way forward for you.



Native Mobile Apps
Native mobile app company Malaysia are specifically designed to run on the smartphones operating system and machine firmware. It usually needs to be customized and adjusted for use on various devices (GIA)

Pros

Internet connectivity is not required for native apps to function which gives users access anytime, anywhere.

Native apps can provide increased functionality by tapping into the features of smartphone handset. If you would like your app to access the user's camera or phonebook or make use of GPS location technology, the accelerometer or server side push notifications then you will probably want to go down the native application route.

Native Apps are circulated through the app stores (Android Marketplace, Apple iTunes,). This is a great platform to get your apps discovered provided you have optimised your application for highest visibility.

Improved user engagement together with extended user sessions are promoted by native mobile apps; this is probably due to the richer user interface provided although this may be set to change with new developments in HTML5.

Surveys show that most affluent respondents are more likely to say they had downloaded a native app (Survey by Ask.com and Harris Interactive)

Cons

Cost - a native app is specific to the mobile handset it is run on, since it uses the features of that specific handset. This means if you are developing across iOS, Android and Blackberry operating systems the development costs can be quite high as each device uses different coding.

Maintenance and complex updating which need additional installation.

Web Apps
An application in which all or some parts of the software are downloaded from the Web each time it is run. It can generally be accessed from every web-capable mobile device (GIA) that is internet enabled.

Pros

User-friendliness - an HTML5 mobile app (web app), can be accessed on majority of mobile devices so you can get in touch with a much broader audience than if you were to build a native mobile app, for instance for only iPhone. Cost - web apps use the identical base code for all platforms (Android, iOS,), even though there is still work to be completed to make sure the application works majority of the platforms which can bring down development costs significantly.

Web apps provide a quicker go-to-market, as they don’t require approval of the distributor. Approval from Apple AppStore can take an extended period of quality assurance and evaluation.

Discoverability - With the increase in native apps within the app stores it will become difficult to distinguish whether web apps are any less visible provided there is a strong marketing strategy on launch to aid discovery.

Web Apps provide more straightforward and un-filtered access to user behaviour analytics allowing prospects of targeted consumer cross-selling.

In order to enable effortless repeat access, web appscan is integrated to the user's smartphone menu.

Cons

Performance and functionality is limited compared to that of a native app as internet connectivity is required and the application cannot access smartphone functions such as geo-location technology or push notifications.

Less controlled user experience
Lack of standards across mobile browsers can make it quite difficult to ensure your app is cross platform compatible.

(There is also the option of building a hybrid native/web app which allows developers to create mobile apps that share their backend with their web application. A hybrid app could provide the perfect trade-off between cost and functionality for your company.)

Mobile Optimised Website
A mobile optimised website is essentially your company's website optimised for viewing on a mobile device.

Pros

A mobile optimised website is a simple transfer of the information and content (or part of it) of your website to enable mobile user accessibility. Because the information and logic is already there, (you are not creating anything new or any extended functionality) mobile websites can be very inexpensive to build.
Websites that are optimized for mobile phones provide smaller companies the chance to make the most of the rise in mobile search.

User experience is significantly enhanced as web page logic is optimised for viewing on a mobile device.

If your website is built in flash then it will not be viewable at all by Apple device users - a website that is optimized for mobile will improve the visibility of your company for Apple users.

Cons

If your website is developed in Flash then it will need more work for that website to be accessible on Apple devices.

A mobile optimised website as with HTML5 web apps depends on internet connectivity to operate

User experience is limited to web based actions.