iPhone App vs. Mobile Friendly Site
Omar wrote recently about the Tory’s iPhone app. And some individuals, such as Michael Geist and Jim Carroll have created iPhone apps. They essentially provide an iPhone friendly way to consume one’s web site, blogs, twitter, etc.
There is another point of view that says to forget that kind of iPhone app – and just make your web site or blog phone friendly. This point of view essentially says that people don’t want to download an app for every site they want to go to. And not everyone has an iPhone.
My blog, for instance, is readable on a mobile device, but leaves a lot of white space that is easy to get lost in. I added a plugin this morning to test it out, which makes it easier to read on a phone. Its not perfect, and leaves off a couple of things I’d like to have, but it is certainly easier to use.
Any new web page or redesign should be done with mobile consumption in mind.
What do Slaw readers think – go for the iPhone app, or focus on mobile friendly?
Why does it have to be either or? Why not make your site mobile friendly, build an iPhone app and an Android app while you are at it? I am not following the logic I am seeing in the posts debating apps – why wouldn’t you use every tool possible rather than gambling on one fitting the bill. Mobile computing is where we all are going so might a well be off and running with it.
Cheers
Martha
I tend to agree with the idea that if you offer a good mobile-friendly version of your website – without too much information on the first page, no need for zooming etc. – then an app. would tend to offer the user no more than what a shortcut or hyperlink to the site would do.
Readers may be interested in iWebKit, a free kit made for anyone wanting to create iPhone, iPod touch ,or iPad websites or webapps and is based on an LGPL license.
The consensus at the Handheld Librarian web-conference in February was that if you’re learning how to write apps now, forget it. Move onto the mobile-friendly html standard. Seems to me with the proliferation of devices out there, you wouldn’t want to tie yourself to i-Phone only.
I am with Martha on this. Often I visit a webpage on my phone which is not mobile-friendly and I am left scratching my head thinking of an alternative (some good TV spoiler blogs for instance.. and the alternatives aren’t updated as often).
What you said is very true – “people don’t want to download an app for every site they want to go to”. Not only that, but I think it’s virtually impossible to download an app for every website that isn’t mobile-friendly. Another obvious issue is that there won’t necessarily be an app for every website.
So at the end of the day, the best, most efficient way to get the most users to have access to a website is to be iPhone/phone/android friendly all together. Sure it’s a hassle to start with, but I believe the ROI would make it worthwhile.
Now with the new iPad and its huge screen, phone web-browsing will increase dramatically, thus making it all the more important for websites and blogs to be mobile-friendly. Since I will be buying the iPad in Canada on April 24, I sure hope most of my favorite websites wither have an iPad-compatible app or are iPad-compatible.
Martha – Depends on your budget. Native iPhone apps aren’t portable to Android and Blackberry, and vice versa. Mobile web sites, however, are much more portable to all handhelds via the browser platform. Do you really want to maintain a web site, a mobile web site, and code for every mobile device you support?