Mobile web vs. native apps: It's not about technology, it's about psychology

Mobile web vs. native:It’s not about technology, it’s about psychology

@brian_donohue

This debate has been around a while - sort of

Remember when Virgin used to be cool?

http://url.ie/a1wt

Execs just want an iPhone/Android app

How many of them are just vanity apps?

There have been some strong opinions

“ Native apps are a remnant of the Jurassic period of computer history, a local maximum that is holding us back.

The combination of a discovery service and just-in-time interaction is a powerful interaction model that native apps can’t begin to offer.”

Gilt CEO told him customers are moving from web to the app because it’s “faster, simpler, more immersive”

It’s all about the “App Internet”

Apparently no one else in his company agrees

Be wary -- this stuff changes fast

2011: “Platforms are risky places to put your

business...If you can do it with the Web -- do it with the Web. It’s faster, cheaper, and easier.”

Web app masters tour, 2011: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1281

2010:“(Website owners interested in developing an iPhone app might start by developing an iPhone-targeted website, where most of this book’s design principles also apply.)”

Source: http://url.ie/evp2

%

And let’s not ignore the bigger context here

of mobile phone users in the world use their phone for SMS. SMS is the primary use for mobile phone users around the world.

85

time it takes for the average SMS to be read after it’s sent

time it takes for the average email to be read after it’s sent

4Source: http://url.ie/f18t

hours48 minutes

Coke’s 70:20:10 rule for mobile:• 70% to SMS and MMS• 20% mobile internet• 10% mobile apps

Of course -- what does Coke need an app for?

Data suggests it’s neck and neck

47.6% of mobile Internet customers use native mobile apps and 47.5% use the Web browser on their devices.

But it varies a lot

People are getting fed up with the debate

“While many people try to argue for one side or the other, the truth is there are great reasons for doing both”

OK - so it’s not a zero sum game

But we still have to choose an approach!

The logic that makes this seem obvious

Fragmentation

Going native is a policy of exclusion...

http://url.ie/a1xc

“We could probably save 70% of our development budget by switching to a single, cross-platform client

Phil Lebin, CEOhttp://url.ie/a1xl

supports 5 native mobile platforms

“...all of these users on all these devices using Facebook mobile in the wide rainbow of lovely different experiences across Android, iPhone, Windows, the Web. That was great from a user perspective. What sucks? The environment for my developers, essentially. You have the bad old days. You have four different platforms to build for something essentially. You want to build for all of those groups? You are going to have to build the sucker four times.

Dave Fetterman, Engineering Managerhttp://url.ie/dj68

supports 4 native mobile platforms

Defining “native” vs. “mobile web”

Objective C HTML, CSS, JS

C ++

Javaworks best on webkit browsers

Different platforms usually means different people

Objective CJava

Native isn’t always better

Native app only Both Web app only

Gyroscope and Accelerometer

Accessing filesystems (e.g. address book, photos)

Fully-immersive experience (e.g. gaming)

Support in-app purchases (Apple takes 30% cut)

Camera Smoother and more

responsive

Store data offline Access GPS Have app-like UI and

transitions Accessible as app

from home screen

Much easier to test, prototype, and rollout

Can update immediately (no app store approval), customers don’t have to update the app

HTML 5 is continually adding hardware capabilities

Who’s going with HTML 5?

The magic bullet?

So is this an easy one?

1. Your app needs to use the hardware

So let’s look at these criteria a little closer

Native app only Both Web app only

Gyroscope and Accelerometer

Accessing filesystems (e.g. address book, photos)

Fully-immersive experience (e.g. gaming)

Support in-app purchases (Apple takes 30% cut)

Camera Smoother and more

responsive

Store data offline Access GPS Have app-like UI and

transitions Accessible as app

from home screen

??Findability??

Much easier to test, prototype, and rollout

Can update immediately (no app store approval), customers don’t have to update the app

Can link to the app (e.g. SMS with link to your bill)

HTML 5 is continually adding hardware capabilities

This was reason we went native with Tayto

Gmail launched their native app in November

It didn’t go down so well amongst technorati

Panned in the reviews as well

Lesson: app expectations are VERY HIGH

2. Frequency of use

Apps that people use the most - the habit forming ones

“As this data shows, while smart phone clients are important, there are even more people who use the mobile Twitter web site and/or SMS."

Out of 425 million mobile users:

Just because you hope peoplewill use your app frequently, that doesn’t necessarily mean they need a native app

3. Damn those links

Do you send out emails or SMSs?

Cries out for links to their mobile app (if they had one)

The big disconnect

4. The experience is just better

It’s about the animations, the speed, the feel, the experience of the whole thing

A billion shared “moments”

Path

Instagram

What about their desktop experience?

Clear app/ The new cool?

Oooh, I can do that in HTML 5

http://clear.youyuxi.com/

Well, sorta / But not for any other phones

“The Web app and native experiences are very similar. We had set out to mimic the native app and make the transition to the Web app seamless. Although it was tricky to achieve precisely the same quality (e.g., access to apis), we quickly got very close (say, 80-90% the same user experience). We have since stopped development of the native app and are aggressively developing the HTML5 version.”

http://url.ie/ew19

You can actually do a lot of this with HTML5

But to (nearly) replicate the UI, you’re basically writing code totally tailored to one device. It’s like a native app, it’s just a different language.

And the experience will never be quite as good.

“It doesn’t feel like a real app”

Lesson: If the experience is part of your differentiator, you gotta make it native

5. Findability

Maybe this will take off?

We still live in an app cultureThe cold reality:

http://tripleodeon.com/2011/09/of-sites-and-apps/

People expect you to have an app

51Source: http://url.ie/f1sk

apps83 apps

Average iOS device owner downloads this many apps in a year

in 2011 in 2010

But hold on a second...

What that looks like

Are you going to be a top 10 app?

To download is not to keep, or use

iOS and Android users

The disposable app culture: Download it, use it once,forget about it, bin it

Why isn’t there a parallel debateabout whether to build for the Mac App store or the desktop browser?

Why isn’t there a parallel debateabout whether to build for the Mac App store or the desktop browser?

Our app culture isn’t all that logical.

(What culture is?)

You need to be brave to tell your boss that our customers won’t be able to download our app from the app store.

Will we see our app culture disappear?

Brent Simmons - creator of NetNewsWirehttp://url.ie/f35r

The app culture:

Download it,

use it once,

forget about it,

bin it

So....There are loads of reasons to go with the web• Cost/effort

• Reach

• Links

• Complete control

But..There are good reasons to go native:• When you have to use the hardware

• When UX needs to be a differentiator

• When you won’t get found unless you’re in the app store

• (Many of us) live in app culture, albeit a disposable one

Be realistic, be brave, don’t go native unless you know you really need to

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Thanks for listening!