This is the age of the smartphone. And the power of mobile has become clearer now that mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic.
To take advantage of this opportunity, clearly its time to think mobile but a mobile app may not always be your best option. Mobile applications or native apps are applications developed for small handheld devices, such as mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs and so on. Mobile apps can come preloaded on the handheld device as well as can be downloaded by users from app stores or the Internet.
There are two types of apps:
1) The native app must be installed on the device; they either arrive pre-installed on the phone – these might include address book, calendar, calculator, games, maps and Web browser – or they can be downloaded from for free or a small fee from Web sites – today these sites are called app stores. Native apps are either written specifically for a type of handset – as many iPhone applications have been – so they can take more advantage of a phone’s functions, or as Java applications – this was the norm with download apps until recently – to run on many handsets.
2) The Web app resides on server and is accessed via the Internet. It performs specified tasks – potentially all the same ones as a native application – for the mobile user, usually by downloading part of the application to the device for local processing each time it is used. The software is written as Web pages in HTML and CSS, with the interactive parts in Java. This means that the same application can be used by most devices that can surf the Web (regardless of the brand of phone).
Of late, there has been some media hype around mobile applications, according to MobiThinking (http://mobithinking.com). This has led to a somewhat distorted and narrow picture of mobile apps, which doesn’t help any business to make an informed choice about mobile strategy. If you believe mobile apps are the right path for your business, then you need to consider all smartphone platforms (including the 85 percent that are not Apple), if not all handsets (including the 97 percent that are not Apple). And you must consider browser-based mobile apps (Web apps) – as well as download (native) apps.
You don’t read much in the press about Web apps today (compared to media coverage of native apps), leading mobiThinking to assume that not much is known about Web apps outside techie circles, and to the suspicion that even some of those may struggle to articulate to the marketing department exactly where mobile Web ends and Web app begins. So we approached the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for some assistance. The W3C is the authority that’s driving the standards behind HTML5 – the new more mobile friendly version of the Web language – and all the associated standard interfaces that help, or will help, Web apps to do almost everything that gets people excited about download apps.
Web apps aren't new
Web apps are not new – in fact Apple had a store for Web apps before it had the Apple App Store – but the media remains largely ignorant to their existence or massive potential. We’re still waiting for the analysts to start projecting massive growth for the Web app, but some analysts are already predicting the decline of the download app:
App stores aren’t going away: following the 2013 peak in demand, the number of downloads in 2015 will have decreased only seven or eight percent. But as our use of the mobile Internet evolves, demand will increasingly shift elsewhere. Why? The mobile Web is getting more and more sophisticated, so that more subscribers will use the functionality on mobile Web sites themselves rather than dedicated apps. We see two emerging trends: first, many applications (increasingly built on Web standards) will migrate from app stores to regular Web sites, and for some sites you won’t need an app at all. In addition, more and more popular applications will be preloaded on mobile devices. Social networking apps in particular will be pre-loaded on new products. Mark Beccue, ABI Research (May 2010)
If you have an ecommerce store and you don't offer a mobile option, it boggles the mind to think of how many sales opportunities you are missing out on. Today, many of your customers expect, and will soon demand, a cohesive mobile experience. If you don't offer one, they might gravitate toward another provider instead.
On the flip side, offering a unique experience to people who visit your site on a mobile device, such as an iPhone or an Android phone, can help you stand out from the crowd and increase sales, as well as build customer loyalty. It reinforces the sense that your store can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
The key focus of your mobile ecommerce solution will be a streamlined design that makes the best use of the limited screen space and encourages quick purchases on the go.
