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The Internet provides an immense opportunity for you to interact directly with your current and prospective customers. Comprehensive website planning, design, and development is the true passion of Pickering’s web development team. Our website projects range in size and scope, yet share a quality of professional integrity that engages site users with compelling messages and intuitive functionality.
Pickering Creative Group can fulfill your online business requirements with web application development, custom and open source content management systems, and visual designs that will function on a wide range of web-enabled devices.
We are all aware of the ever-evolving technical landscape. It began with the Internet, and now things are changing faster than you can type a URL. Understanding how to effectively communicate your organization’s content or product through mobile devices is fundamental to your marketing strategy.
We’ve discussed mobile optimized websites, but sometimes it makes sense to go a step further to develop a mobile app. Wouldn’t it be great if it was that simple? Analytics indicate you need an app… and then the team at Pickering would develop one for you. Not so fast. Mobile apps are developed in two very distinct methods. Both have strengths and limitations, but it is important for you to understand the capabilities of a Web app and Native app to ensure your app provides value to the user, while widening your digital footprint.
Web Apps
A web app, such as m.Facebook.com, accesses the mobile device’s web browser to deliver content. A web app leverages the functionality of an existing website, allowing an almost seamless transition to deliver content on mobile devices. As a result of running on your mobile web browser, the user experience is not interrupted to update the app, since it is done automatically. The investment in a web app is often less than a native app, as the web app only needs to be developed once. Due to the web app accessing each device’s web browser, it immediately becomes compatible with all platforms and processing systems.
Native Apps
The largest differentiating factor between a native and web app is that native apps have direct access to the device’s hardware—accessing the functionality of the device. Generally speaking, native apps are higher performing than web apps without Internet access. The app may access the Internet to post scores (like on Angry Birds), or to install updates. Also providing the user a streamlined interface while delivering content that is graphically rich, native apps don’t require user consent to access certain functionalities (such as GPS) like web apps. Due to diversity in operating systems, the investment for a native app is greater. For the widest reach, each native app should have at least three versions that are compatible with Android, IOS, and Windows Mobile devices. A time investment exists—each user needs to continuously install updates to ensure the app provides the best experience.
Each passing day, the line that separates web and native apps is blurred even further – but for now, make sure you have all the facts and a clear vision on how you want to interact with your customers before you invest in app development. For information on which is the best fit for your organization, contact us or call Matt O’Gorman, account director, at 402.423.5447.
