Should You Develop an App or Mobile Website?
Before opening XCode or hiring a developer to build an iPhone/Android app, there are a few questions that you should ask yourself:
- Will my product require use of the camera, microphone or other device-specific hardware?
- Will it access the address book, media library or common user data?
- Will I charge for my product, using an app store as the payment processor?
- Will I send push notifications or need background processes?
If the answer to any of the above is ‘yes,’ then an iPhone/Android app may be right for you. If the answer is ‘no,’ you may want to consider building an HTML5 mobile website instead.
Mobile websites:
- Can access geolocation info.
- Provide offline caching and storage.
- Handle touch and gesture events.
- Are easily deployed (new versions and bug fixes)
- Are cross-platform (Android, iPhone, webOS, etc.)
Comments and discussion: #NotAnApp
