Semantico does a good job of laying out pros and cons for publishers for creating apps. vs. mobile websites at http://tinyurl.com/y4g5u2t. The author, Richard Padley, Managing Director, says “Inevitably the best choice in any given situation will depend on the content, the market, the level of investment needed and the risk publishers are willing to take on individual titles.” While that’s a given, I want to know whether users with hundreds of apps on their phones will remember yours. Or will they just go to a website on their phone and search for something to do the task at hand?
In another post on the same site called Focus on technology not devices, the author discusses the differences from a user perspective. He says “From the user’s point of view, the experience of using an app is utterly different from that of using a PC. One virtue of the app is that it does a very narrow, specific thing. Apps streamline our use of the internet and cut out – or at least reduce – much of the pain associated with PCs (e.g. constant downloads of plug-ins, patches and updates, the state of total war we have to live in with viruses, spyware and spam, etc.). A website is always going to feel like a place you go to, to harvest a crop of information. In the case of an app, the crop is turned into biofuel: information becomes the petrol that gets your knowledge car from A to B – to a designated destination. A website might be a field of dreams (if you’ll excuse a criminally over-used film reference), but an app helps you actually do something.”
I want to know: Do you agree with Semantico’s take on the differences? Are these differences relevant long-term, or do users need a way to manage all their apps., and get new ones on-demand? What’s your take on when to make an app vs. when to make a website?
– Kathy Sandler
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- Closing the Digital Frontier (theatlantic.com)
Gawker founder Nick Denton agrees with me according to BusinessInsider at http://tinyurl.com/375me3q in “Hey, Media Companies, The ‘Boring Old Web’ Is Way More Important Than Your Crappy iPad App.” – Kathy Sandler