Mobile responsive or App?

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Printing Deals

Printing Deals

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  • #1
    Where we heading when it comes to cater for handheld devices?
    I know many online businesses focusing on getting mobile responsive websites. But would it be dying in few years time and businesses will be doing mobile apps instead? Or it could be totally opposite?
     
    fisicx

    fisicx

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  • #2
    RESPONSIVE!

    That way you only need one site for every device from a 42 screen all the way down to mobile phone.
     
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    elsaid_m

    elsaid_m

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    Jun 19, 2014
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  • #3
    Printing Deals said:
    Where we heading when it comes to cater for handheld devices?
    I know many online businesses focusing on getting mobile responsive websites. But would it be dying in few years time and businesses will be doing mobile apps instead? Or it could be totally opposite?
    Click to expand...

    Mobile responsive is not even an option now.. People searching and visiting your site to get some information of it, Not searching the app store to download your app to find information. Its all about how quickly the customer wants the information.

    Now, after doing mobile responsive, you gotta ask yourself a question. Do you have some "personalisation" to your customers that you provide through your site.? Like login to your account to see if your ordered products, or to download your invoice, etc... If the answer that you provide "personalisation" service, then you should consider ALSO doing an app. As an app is mostly usefull when you have loads of info that a customer will come back to view everytime, or if you provide a personalised service to your customer such as ecommerce. But as I said mobile responsive is number one even if you'll have an app.

    My company does something really cool recently. We develop the mobile responsive site, and using some clever technology, they convert it to an app. With a bit more effort, the app becomes as responsive as native apps with a fraction of the cost. This type of service delivery is called cross-platform development. And by the way, we don't even develop a site that isn't mobile responsive anymore. At this age, we consider it against usability standards. Mobile traffic is over half of the internet traffic nowadays. 55% as far as I remember
     
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    D

    Deleted member 175327

  • #4
    Sadly, as often is the case, these are complex matters. Sometimes an app is more appropriate, sometimes responsive is more appropriate..

    Just like asking what vehicle to get. Sometimes a bike is better than a car and vice versa.
     
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    easidoo

    easidoo

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    Jun 23, 2014
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  • #5
    I second the suggestion from @fisicx . Responsive is the way to go. With the evolution in javascript frameworks, there's not much more a native app could offer.

    However, if your app largely depends on the hardware resources, i.e. sensors like gyroscope, accelerometer.., of the phone then a native app would give you a better performance.
     
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    C

    Captain Continuity

  • #6
    elsaid_m said:
    Mobile responsive is not even an option now.. People searching and visiting your site to get some information of it, Not searching the app store to download your app to find information. Its all about how quickly the customer wants the information.

    Now, after doing mobile responsive, you gotta ask yourself a question. Do you have some "personalisation" to your customers that you provide through your site.? Like login to your account to see if your ordered products, or to download your invoice, etc... If the answer that you provide "personalisation" service, then you should consider ALSO doing an app. As an app is mostly usefull when you have loads of info that a customer will come back to view everytime, or if you provide a personalised service to your customer such as ecommerce. But as I said mobile responsive is number one even if you'll have an app.
    Click to expand...

    Indeed

    And Great cos I didn't need to write all that :)

    Jonathan
     
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    O

    OlegLola

  • #7
    It is generally more considerable to build a website as the first step of establishing mobile presence among a wide audience. It is faster and cheaper. That's a great solution for the sphere of marketing and eCommerce. Meanwhile the complex software that requires native features, the software for regular and offline use, the interactive software such as games - all these are implemented best as mobile apps.
     
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    TimFallon

    TimFallon

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  • #10
    Responsive.

    People are much more likely to search for your business online (mobile browsers are getting better and better) and most people won't be bothered downloading your App unless they do a lot of business with you. And if they do then they'd use the responsive website too.

    For the cost of building an App I would venture for most companies it's not worth it.
     
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    fisicx

    fisicx

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  • #14
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    senses

    senses

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  • #17
    You always start with Responsive, and then move to App if there is a business case for it.

    If a web provider doesn't offer responsive, then they are not using a good foundation of framework (Bootstrap, Y!! etc) and thus you should be asking why.

    Give your website the best chance of lasting years, not months!!
     
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    L

    liam_intercity

  • #19
    Responsive is necessary in this day and age I feel, as mobile and tablet browsing is now around 40-45% of the total split and growing, as more and more people find the ease of searching on the move appealing. Personally if i want information quickly i will often Google search on my mobile device even when i have my laptop open! For ease of access reasons i do not think apps could ever replace mobile responsive sites, but could be seen more as a customer experience building platform once a healthy client size has been reached.
     
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    naeem-akram

    naeem-akram

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  • #20
    If you're not sending push-notifications to your clients, or not doing other platform specific fancy things then go with a responsive web-site.
    For presence on app stores you may create shallow apps which will only open your responsive website inside themselves. This way, your clients will have your logo as icon on their smartphones which will remind them about you.
     
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    S

    samuel0785

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  • #25
    I think responsive web design is better than a mobile app. It has some advantage like it can work on all mobile devices like iPhone, Android and tablets. If you make a mobile app, then you have to develop mobile app for all the platforms. So it will be costly. With responsive design you have to maintain only one website.
     
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    B

    Begum.Ewan

  • #26
    If it's just pure information you're offering - responsive disign is the answer, but if you want to give your clients something to use offline you should consider building a native or hybrid app.
    But I agree with the most of you that for majority cases responsive design is the most suitable solution.
     
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