I’m really glad you wrote this. Now, as an iPhone developer, I can send people over here when they want to learn about the benefits of a native solution.
Two points I would add. I think these are important because I work at a software development firm see a lot of proposals for iPhone apps that simply don’t make sense. Frankly, they would be a complete waste of money for the brand.
1. Commitment. When deciding on going for an optimized web app or a native solution, you have to think about whether the kind of app you are building is something people are willing to commit to. Web apps generally don’t require much commitment. You can find the site on Google and use it right away. Apps require more commitment: knowing it exists, going through the process of finding and downloading it, being okay that you just added another icon to your already clogged up home screen. If you don’t have enough customers who are passionate enough about your information or service that they would commit to your app, you may be wasting money building that app.
2. If the above case is true, you are not out of luck. It is actually an opportunity. How about instead of building a self-centered app for your brand (essentially, a mirror of your website), do what IMPACK studios did with Voice Tutor and build a remarkable app that does something a lot of users want to do. Its not about the brand, its about the function, but the app does indeed boost the brand and does, as you say, expand the brand’s market on the app store. This way you don’t need existing committed users and it will be a lot easier to get press and be featured by Apple – which, I think, is essential to a successful app.
I’ve fleshed these ideas out a bit more on my company’s blog if you’re interested: “Your company should NOT build an app”:http://skookum.com/blog/your-company-should-not-build-app – pardon the hyperbolic title.
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Benny McTavish
I have been down this road before.
Having tried to make my App with an apple I found it really quite difficult. It ended in such frustration that I eventually returned the apple to the green grocer. He suggested I use a computer and he was right.
I now use a computer to make all my Apps. I am very pleased with it.
I think that Apple is the new Microsoft, and they’re secretly trying to turn people from web-users into app users, so that their competition fails.
What they are doing with the apps doesn’t really make much sense from any other line of thinking, be it usability or what have you.
Think about it; people have struggled and labored for years to come up with an abstraction that will run across all different kinds of computers, the ultimate “write-once-run-anywhere” as first termed by Java.
The closest any abstraction has ever gotten to this is the web, and its web applications; and it’s pretty darned close to that, excluding really old browsers and most past browsers made by Microsoft.
While I can’t speak for the rest of the developer community or the end-users that use what they produce, my personal opinion is that a better result will come from multiple web-app providers (i.e. Apples and their completion) than a single monolithic source such as Apple all by itself.
In short I hope HTML5 wins the battle with the platform specific apps (if there is one), as the apps feel like a step backward considering how far we’ve come.
There are many advanced techniques used to develop iphones. The latest development is the ebook reading application. Also I saw one amazing fact, “sixth sense technology”, I like to spread a word about this.
The news media has an appetite for iPhone apps. An interesting iPhone app is far more likely to get tons of PR than an interesting web app, right? Whether or not that matters, it helps color perceptions and guide conversations.
Plus, the idea of the website has been an ongoing story slow to evolve. The media doesn’t cover complex, macrocosmic events or ideas very well — just look at pandemics compared to natural disasters; pandemics are far more severe but get so much less media attention. So when did a web app become a web app? [Hard to answer.] But when did the iPhone app become the iPhone app? As soon as the App Store opened. Easy.
Web apps are great. iPhone apps are great. Perception vs. reality and the excitement (frenzy?) stoked by the media has got to enter the discussion.
It’s a nice article about the topic itself, but ALA! “For People Who Make Websites”?! Really? Is this the horse you’re betting on, device-specific apps?
While the article is great in its analysis of apps vs web, I don’t think that going from javascripting to objective c is a quick progression. If you already have a background in C, C++ or Java, you’ll be fine with objective C. However if your career to date has been coding HTML, CSS and JS you’ve got a world of ramping up. Dealing with memory management, compilers, debuggers, project configuration and deployment requires time and even additonal CS theory. If you don’t learn it properly you’re going to wind up writing buggy apps or not getting approved through the app store. While I’m not trying to dissuade anyone, I also dont’ think that the leap from js to objective C is a simiple one.
31 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleJeremy Olson
I’m really glad you wrote this. Now, as an iPhone developer, I can send people over here when they want to learn about the benefits of a native solution.
Two points I would add. I think these are important because I work at a software development firm see a lot of proposals for iPhone apps that simply don’t make sense. Frankly, they would be a complete waste of money for the brand.
1. Commitment. When deciding on going for an optimized web app or a native solution, you have to think about whether the kind of app you are building is something people are willing to commit to. Web apps generally don’t require much commitment. You can find the site on Google and use it right away. Apps require more commitment: knowing it exists, going through the process of finding and downloading it, being okay that you just added another icon to your already clogged up home screen. If you don’t have enough customers who are passionate enough about your information or service that they would commit to your app, you may be wasting money building that app.
2. If the above case is true, you are not out of luck. It is actually an opportunity. How about instead of building a self-centered app for your brand (essentially, a mirror of your website), do what IMPACK studios did with Voice Tutor and build a remarkable app that does something a lot of users want to do. Its not about the brand, its about the function, but the app does indeed boost the brand and does, as you say, expand the brand’s market on the app store. This way you don’t need existing committed users and it will be a lot easier to get press and be featured by Apple – which, I think, is essential to a successful app.
I’ve fleshed these ideas out a bit more on my company’s blog if you’re interested: “Your company should NOT build an app”:http://skookum.com/blog/your-company-should-not-build-app – pardon the hyperbolic title.
Benny McTavish
I have been down this road before.
Having tried to make my App with an apple I found it really quite difficult. It ended in such frustration that I eventually returned the apple to the green grocer. He suggested I use a computer and he was right.
I now use a computer to make all my Apps. I am very pleased with it.
leeand00
I think that Apple is the new Microsoft, and they’re secretly trying to turn people from web-users into app users, so that their competition fails.
What they are doing with the apps doesn’t really make much sense from any other line of thinking, be it usability or what have you.
Think about it; people have struggled and labored for years to come up with an abstraction that will run across all different kinds of computers, the ultimate “write-once-run-anywhere” as first termed by Java.
The closest any abstraction has ever gotten to this is the web, and its web applications; and it’s pretty darned close to that, excluding really old browsers and most past browsers made by Microsoft.
While I can’t speak for the rest of the developer community or the end-users that use what they produce, my personal opinion is that a better result will come from multiple web-app providers (i.e. Apples and their completion) than a single monolithic source such as Apple all by itself.
In short I hope HTML5 wins the battle with the platform specific apps (if there is one), as the apps feel like a step backward considering how far we’ve come.
avilacain
There are many advanced techniques used to develop iphones. The latest development is the ebook reading application. Also I saw one amazing fact, “sixth sense technology”, I like to spread a word about this.
builtbyblackbird
The news media has an appetite for iPhone apps. An interesting iPhone app is far more likely to get tons of PR than an interesting web app, right? Whether or not that matters, it helps color perceptions and guide conversations.
Plus, the idea of the website has been an ongoing story slow to evolve. The media doesn’t cover complex, macrocosmic events or ideas very well — just look at pandemics compared to natural disasters; pandemics are far more severe but get so much less media attention. So when did a web app become a web app? [Hard to answer.] But when did the iPhone app become the iPhone app? As soon as the App Store opened. Easy.
Web apps are great. iPhone apps are great. Perception vs. reality and the excitement (frenzy?) stoked by the media has got to enter the discussion.
webdesignlebanonseo
Great article.
The web shifted from being a web of pages to a web of data, web of things, web of apps.
wINc
You should really be developing on android.
Better API
Friendlier Company
And
Your app can port to the IPhone / Symbian / Windows Mobile (see xmlvm)
Yeah, yeah, IPhone shiney. Now get off my lawn.
leeand00
Rethinking the Mobile Web by Yiibu:
http://www.slideshare.net/bryanrieger/rethinking-the-mobile-web-by-yiibu?from=ss_embed?from=fblanding
and also:
Mobile First
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933
leeand00
waah me want iphone app.
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/03/html5_apps.html
Seriously, you’ll reach 80% of the users, you won’t do that with an iPhone App.
nelson_menezes
It’s a nice article about the topic itself, but ALA! “For People Who Make Websites”?! Really? Is this the horse you’re betting on, device-specific apps?
heathersh
While the article is great in its analysis of apps vs web, I don’t think that going from javascripting to objective c is a quick progression. If you already have a background in C, C++ or Java, you’ll be fine with objective C. However if your career to date has been coding HTML, CSS and JS you’ve got a world of ramping up. Dealing with memory management, compilers, debuggers, project configuration and deployment requires time and even additonal CS theory. If you don’t learn it properly you’re going to wind up writing buggy apps or not getting approved through the app store. While I’m not trying to dissuade anyone, I also dont’ think that the leap from js to objective C is a simiple one.