The way society connects to the network has changed a lot in recent years. If before computers and their portable presentations represented the platform par excellence, today smartphones have become a great alternative for cyberspace and its infinite contents. A world in which, of course, marketing cannot be absent.
Each time life is more "mobile". Whether to access news, book summaries, weather data, restaurant recommendations, cinemas, bars, discos, install social networks, maps, music, know the movement of the stock market and an endless etcetera, today's phones are part essential in the lives of millions of people in the world. Practically all the activities carried out by modern man have somehow to do with the modern telephone-life relationship, a symbiosis that is enhanced by the portability of the devices and the obvious intimacy achieved by
app developers and app development companies. And as an important part of this happy connection are - without any doubt - mobile applications or simply Apps. Let's see why.
What is an App?
If you have a smartphone or other type of mobile device, you know exactly what this article is talking about. It is a program that you can easily download and access directly from your phone or from another mobile device, such as a tablet or MP3 player, without prior installation. Initially thought of as arcade games and ringtones in the 90s, and popularized thanks to innovations in WAP technology and data transmission (EDGE), its use is worldwide and today there are millions of them developed by tech companies, for the most varied use and purpose. Moreover, according to the analysis firm ABI Research, it is expected that in 2018 about 250 billion applications have been downloaded, 5 million of which will literally fight to open a space in the Apple store (App Store) or Google Play, the two largest markets in the sector.
The massive development of apps was born with the idea of facilitating or allowing the execution of certain tasks in which an analyst or a development company has detected a certain unsatisfied need, the improvement of existing solutions, or simply a commercial opportunity. Depending on the use that is going to be given, which can have professional or only personal applications, and according to their purpose, they can be entertainment, business, business category, sound, graphics, editing, web, didactic, and even, according to the branch of science in which they are used, it can be said that there are applications of engineering, telecommunications, medicine, mathematics ... It is enough that there is a service or an idea that has not been implemented, for an app to shout its right to exist.
That is why there are apps developments of all weights and appearances. Depending on the case, they can be from very small programs of just a few lines of code to large companies with thousands of hours of work behind. The size, however, does not define the success of an application, but just that it covers the needs of the user. The history of the applications is full of thousands of great applications that have been replaced by others, simply because they were faster, more intuitive, more stable or fulfilled their function better.
Flipboard stood out in the vast world of app development because of its attractive interface that suggests the user read articles according to their social activity and that of their contacts. Instagram opened the market for photographic filters for images captured with mobile devices and Chrome had a great performance in smartphones and tablets that work with Android. Chance? No. Award for originality? Yes.
Differences between an app and a web page optimized for mobile
However, an app should not be confused with a website optimized for mobile devices. It is a common mistake to resemble them, but not voluntary. What separates them from one another? A mobile website is similar to others that consist of browser HTML pages, which are linked together and accessed through the Internet. Like any web page, with the difference that they are designed for smaller screens and touch screen interface, something that is demonstrable just by entering any news page from our phone and see the format in which the information appears. And like any website, they can show text content, data, images, and videos,
In contrast, applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile phone, instead of being played in a browser. For this, users visit specific portals for devices or app stores, in order to find and download applications for a given operating system. The app can extract information from the Internet, similar to a website. But in fact, their resemblance does not mean they are the same. Depending on the interest of
top app development companies, and the objectives of commercial scope, the utility between one and another varies. Since this is a blog of an advertising nature, and from the point of view of marketing, let's ask: Which is better, an App or a mobile website?
Actually, the most appropriate choice depends on your ultimate goals. If mobile targets are focused on finding markets, or if your goal is to provide better content and maintain a foothold among users, and indexed in app stores, then a mobile website is the logical choice. Also if your goal is active engagement with users, or provide a mobile application that needs to work more like a computer program than a website, then an app is probably going to be necessary. As other experts have pointed out, a mobile website looks for the general, while an app, the particular. That is their main difference.
The importance of mobile applications
If a few years ago it was considered that companies with vested interests in mobile app development did not have a web page was losing diffusion by leaps and bounds, nowadays the one that does not have a presence in mobile devices follows the same path. Companies that are at the forefront take advantage of every commercial space they have to show their products. And in that area, a mobile application could be the plus that makes thousands of people know your product. However, as important as deciding to create an application, is that it really contributes to the user and does not go unnoticed.