Advantages Of Mobile Native Apps Versus The Mobile Web

May 2, 2014 / / No Comments

Here are the current advantages of mobile native apps versus the mobile web, at least as commonly used and deployed today.

Applications often have more mobile-native user interfaces, at least relative to web experiences that have not been extensively adapted for mobile.

Mobile native apps often have better performance than mobile web. This is meaningful given the latency issues with many mobile networks.

Mobile native apps often have better and more complete access to mobile hardware capabilities, This is meaningful given the rapid hardware evolution.

Mobile operating systems have acclimated users to having icons for mobile apps on their home screen versus icons for mobile web bookmarks.

Mobile native apps have easy monetization methods that the web has historically lacked, including in-app payments and recurring subscriptions.

Mobile native apps have access to OS notification feeds that web experiences don’t (or don’t easily).

The $64 billion question: Is there a software breakthrough on the way that will do for mobile what browsers did for desktops/laptops?

[tweet https://twitter.com/timburks/status/462476163466530816 align=”center”] [tweet https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/462476378227486720 align=”center”] [tweet https://twitter.com/timburks/status/462477238521171968 align=”center”] [tweet https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/462477436622340096 align=”center”]

Source Tweets: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Characteristics of The Web Not Recreated or Partially Recreated With Mobile Apps So Far

May 2, 2014 / / No Comments

Characteristics of the web that have not been recreated, or have only partially been recreated with mobile apps so far.

Universal client – One piece of code on each client device that runs all apps, removing the need to install and manage client code.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Simonkhalaf/status/462472372025425920 align=”center”]

One-click App Access (“install”) – Run any app by clicking on a link.

Permissionless Innovation – No approval required by anyone to bring new web apps online; no opportunity to bottleneck or censor.

Instant Universal Updating – Make a server-side change and all running instances of the app are simultaneously upgraded.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Simonkhalaf/status/462472987971563522 align=”center”]

Trivially easy creation of situation-specific apps with any programming/scripting language on any operating system. Some being just a few lines of code.

Deeply integrated Link (URL) Model, Framework, Format, Specification – Native to how apps work and how users experience them.

Trivially easy integration and layering of 3rd party services with web content apps, from search engines to social networks to Twitter.

[tweet https://twitter.com/akarve/status/462473687162048512 align=”center”]

Source Tweets: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8