Difference Between a Mobile Website app and an App?
Before you can evaluate the benefits of a mobile website vs. an app it’s important to understand the key differences between the two. Both apps and mobile websites are accessed on a handheld devices such as smartphones (e.g. iPhone, Android and Blackberry) and tablets.
A mobile website is similar to any other website in that it consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the Internet (for mobile typically WiFi or 3G or 4G networks). The obvious characteristic that distinguishes a mobile website from a standard website is the fact that it is designed for the smaller handheld display and touch-screen interface.
Like any website, mobile websites can display text content, data, images and video. They can also access mobile-specific features such as click-to-call (to dial a phone number) or location-based mapping.
Apps are actual applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device, rather than being rendered within a browser. Users visit device-specific portals such as Apple’s App Store, Android Market, or Blackberry App World in order to find and download apps for a given operating system. The app may pull content and data from the Internet, in similar fashion to a website, or it may download the content so that it can be accessed without an Internet connection.
Which is Better – an App or a Mobile Website?
When it comes to deciding whether to build a native app or a mobile website, the most appropriate choice really depends on your end goals. If you are developing an interactive game an app is probably going to be your best option. But if your goal is to offer mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience then a mobile website is probably the way to go. In some cases you may decide you need both a mobile website and a mobile app, but it’s pretty safe to say that it rarely makes sense to build an app without already having a mobile website in place.
Generally speaking, a mobile website should be considered your first step in developing a mobile web presence, whereas an app is useful for developing an application for a very specific purpose that cannot be effectively accomplished via a web browser.
Advantages of a Mobile Website vs. Native Apps
If your goals are primarily related to marketing or public communications, a mobile website is almost always going to make sense as a practical first step in your mobile outreach strategy. This is because a mobile website has a number of inherent advantages over apps, including broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness.
What do native apps do better than Web apps? How long will this remain the case?
When we asked publishers that offer both application interfaces to compare the two, twice as many publishers saw higher user adoption, usage volume and user engagement (i.e. duration of usage per session) over native apps. In particular 30 percent of these publishers actually saw over 100 percent higher usage volume and engagement on native apps as compared to Web apps. Our study also found that native apps deliver a higher click-through rate (CTR) among the ad-serving publishers, although experiences can vary by company and content category.
While we do expect native apps to maintain their lead in user adoption and engagement in the near future, it is important to recognize the large variances in publishers’ experiences and, in many cases, the difference in adoption is driven by the gap in user friendliness between the same company’s native and Web app interfaces. Many developers argue that the relatively poor user experience offered by currently available Web apps are due to a lack of access to native device features such as GPS, camera, calendar and accelerometer, but that is soon to change.
What do native apps do better than Web apps? How long will this remain the case?
When we asked publishers that offer both application interfaces to compare the two, twice as many publishers saw higher user adoption, usage volume and user engagement (i.e. duration of usage per session) over native apps. In particular 30 percent of these publishers actually saw over 100 percent higher usage volume and engagement on native apps as compared to Web apps. Our study also found that native apps deliver a higher click-through rate (CTR) among the ad-serving publishers, although experiences can vary by company and content category.
While we do expect native apps to maintain their lead in user adoption and engagement in the near future, it is important to recognize the large variances in publishers’ experiences and, in many cases, the difference in adoption is driven by the gap in user friendliness between the same company’s native and Web app interfaces. Many developers argue that the relatively poor user experience offered by currently available Web apps are due to a lack of access to native device features such as GPS, camera, calendar and accelerometer, but that is soon to change.
