If your business is planning to build native mobile apps, ask yourself this question: Are you building native mobile apps because you need to, or because you think you have to? While native apps are popular with consumers, they’re quite impractical for most businesses.
To understand why, let’s first look at why native apps are popular with consumers. Native apps do a couple of things very well: They deliver highly graphical interfaces and they’re easy to find and download. While these are important factors for consumers, are they really important to your business?
For most businesses, the answer is a resounding “No”. Unless your business needs highly graphical applications, mobile web apps simply make more business sense. How so? Here are 7 reasons why mobile web apps make more sense from a business standpoint:
1. Mobile web apps are easier to build
Suppose you needed to create mobile apps that reached all major smartphone and tablet platforms. The native approach requires separate apps for each platform (Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows) and device (phone/tablet), meaning you must build 4 separate smartphone apps and 4 separate tablet apps. That’s 8 total apps.
On the flip side, reaching all major smartphone and tablet platforms with mobile web apps is far simpler: Since mobile web apps are platform independent, you’ll only need to create one app for smartphones and one app for tablets. That means you’re creating 2 mobile web apps instead of 8 native apps.
Going one step further, it’s possible to simplify this process even more. Using the right approach, you can create just one web app that looks different, yet native on all smartphones, tablets, and PCs. This article explains the concept in more detail.
2. Mobile web apps are cheaper to build
Most mobile platforms use a different programming language. Apple uses Objective-C. Android and Blackberry use Java. Windows Phone uses C#. In other words, creating native mobile apps that reach all major smartphone and tablet platforms requires that you hire multiple developers. Building mobile web apps only requires one web developer.
3. Mobile web apps are cheaper and easier to maintain
Tying into the previous two points, the native approach leaves you with 8 different applications to maintain. That means even the most minor changes must happen in 8 different places. On the flip side, the mobile web app approach leaves you with just two apps to maintain: One for smartphones and one for tablets.
4. Mobile web apps offer simpler updates
Users must download and install the latest application version on their device to update their native apps. Alternatively, mobile web app updates are delivered seamlessly over the web, without any effort from the user.
5. Mobile web apps offer “native” capabilities
This is where many business get confused. They assume that mobile web apps can’t access a smartphone’s file system or hardware sensors, like the GPS, gyroscope, or accelerometer. As this blog post points out, mobile web apps are far more capable than many people think.
6. Mobile web apps are future proof
RIM and Palm were the big mobile players just 5 short years ago. Now it’s Apple and Google. What will the mobile landscape look like in another 5 years? Maybe a new OS will take over. Maybe iOS and Android will lose popularity. Who knows? The one thing I do know: The web isn’t going anywhere. Mobile web apps offer the only way to protect your company from changes in the mobile landscape.
7. Mobile web apps aren’t controlled by another company
What happens if Apple or Google decides that your native app shouldn’t be in their store? You’re out of luck. Do you really want to give another company so much control over your mobile apps? On the flip side, you have complete control over mobile web apps since they are distributed through the browser.
Conclusion
While native apps may be the popular choice for consumer-facing apps, it could be a big waste of time and money in the business world. For most businesses, the benefits provided by mobile web apps far outweigh those offered by native apps. If your company is considering mobile apps, make sure you understand all the facts before choosing your approach.
For more information on this topic, here’s a whitepaper that may help: Mobile web apps: The best option for business?
Joe Stangarone is a 30+ year veteran of the IT industry and president of mrc—the software company behind the award winning development platform, 
9 comments
Fast, Easy Web Design! » Blog Archive » 7 reasons why mobile web apps are better for business than native … says:
May 15, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -5)
[...] 7 reasons why mobile web apps are better for business than native …By Joe StangaroneOn the flip side, reaching all major smartphone and tablet platforms with mobile web apps is far simpler: Since mobile web apps are platform independent, you'll only need to create one app for smartphones and one app for tablets. That means …mrc's Cup of Joe Blog [...]
Better in 7 says:
May 15, 2012 at 8:21 pm (UTC -5)
Thanks for the recommendations. Working with several clients that want a native application and trying to find ways to talk them out of it. Nice to have a short and easy to understand listing of things the higher-ups can comprehend. Also, big thanks for the links to other articles in here. Much appreciated.
App Link Roundup says:
May 22, 2012 at 4:36 am (UTC -5)
[...] has a fun article on why mobile apps are better than native apps for businesses. In short, they’re easier to build, cheaper to build, easier to update, future proof [...]
Weekly recap: Best smartphones, warning signs of bad architecture, and more… | mrc's Cup of Joe Blog says:
May 25, 2012 at 10:05 am (UTC -5)
[...] Obama orders agencies to shift services to mobile apps While this is certainly a move in the right direction, I wonder how these agencies will approach this project. Will they take the (more expensive and time-consuming) native app approach? Or, will they take the (simpler and more logical) mobile web app approach? When you compare both approaches, the latter simply makes better business sense. [...]
Weekly recap: Windows 8 hurdles, the decade of the cloud, and more… | mrc's Cup of Joe Blog says:
June 11, 2012 at 9:51 am (UTC -5)
[...] Blackberry vs. iPhone: Is this still a question? Just 2 short years ago, an author was criticized for an article claiming that iPhones would become more popular than Blackberrys. While he was clearly right (and states it in this article), I see a larger point that applies to business: The mobile landscape is extremely volatile. What will it look like in another 2 years? Maybe Apple will be on the way out. Who knows? This is yet another reason to choose the cross-platform mobile web apps over the platform specific native apps. How do you know if the platform you’re building for will still be around in a few years? The only way to know for sure: Build for the web. [...]
6 big Business Intelligence trends of the near future | mrc's Cup of Joe Blog says:
June 19, 2012 at 7:35 am (UTC -5)
[...] Now, mobile BI goes a step beyond simply building separate mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. It involves creating BI apps that adapt to the device on which they’re accessed. Take this Business Intelligence app for example. It looks like a PC application when accessed on a PC, but looks completely different (yet native) when accessed on a tablet or smartphone. While it looks different everywhere, there’s only one underlying application. Why will mobile BI take this web-based approach instead of the native app route? Simple: It makes more business sense. [...]
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July 4, 2012 at 1:39 am (UTC -5)
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Weekly recap: 10 best tablets in the world today, BYOD face-off, and more… | mrc's Cup of Joe Blog says:
July 6, 2012 at 8:45 am (UTC -5)
[...] 10 best tablets in the world today As tablets work their way into the workplace, companies will soon face a big question: Which tablet is right for us? While the article above lists the best options, I’d like to add one more factor for your consideration: What’s your mobile app strategy? If you plan on building native mobile apps, your options are rather limited. However, if you plan on building mobile web apps, you’re free to choose whichever tablet is best for your company. To learn more about why mobile web apps are best for business, check out this article. [...]
Have businesses fallen for Apple’s marketing? | mrc's Cup of Joe Blog says:
August 7, 2012 at 10:14 am (UTC -5)
[...] On the flip side, if you decided to build that app as a mobile web app, you could avoid all of those problems. Mobile web apps let businesses instantly reach all platforms, and don’t depend on any other company. That’s not all. As this article explains, mobile web apps are usually the best option for business. [...]