Which is better- Mobile Web Apps or Mobile Native Apps?

Application development has expanded its scope by leaps and bounds. There is a variety of apps in various business segments. These applications help people in carrying out, even the most difficult tasks, with utmost ease. They help in accomplishing more during the day and enhance the overall productivity. Windows mobile apps development process is employed by developers to create windows applications.

For any organization, having a website to sell its products and/or services, getting a mobile application is of utmost importance. A number of companies are willing to extend their mobile website or mobile application for convenience of their clients. On the other hand there are companies who are intimidated by the mobile revolution and do not completely trust the results it can deliver to a business. They always have qualms about whether to build a dedicated application for each mobile device. Should they go for hybrid solution? They are often perplexed owing to the lack of knowledge about the types of mobile applications that work.

Mobile applications come in two different formats. One is native apps and the other is web apps. Owing to differences in their underlying technology, each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let us look at them individually.

Mobile Web Apps:

A mobile web app is a web application which has been formatted for smart phones and tablets. It is accessed by users through the mobile device's web browser. Mobile web app is akin to traditional web application. It is built using three core technologies

• HTML- To define static images plus text

• CSS- To define style and presentation

• JavaScript: To define animations and interactions.

Web apps are designed to be platform and device independent. They can run on any web-enabled smart phone or tablet. A mobile web application can usually be downloaded from a central web server every time you run it. However, apps built using HTML5 can also run on mobile device in offline mode. The main benefit of mobile web apps is that they facilitate cross-platform compatibility. This helps them reach a wide audience with minimum number of efforts. They are usually affordable, easy, and fast to build even though there is so device-specific customization needed.

Although there is a lot of improvement going on in the mobile web apps area, it cannot be denied that mobile browsers come with limited capabilities in comparison to traditional desktop browsers. Web apps cannot access on-board software or hardware on the mobile device. Heavy or complex graphics cannot be supported. Last but not the least, web apps require a connection to work.

Mobile Native Apps

A native mobile is built specially for a specific device and its operating system. A native app can be downloaded from a web store and installed on a device for later use. They are usually written in Java, Objective C, or some other programming language. One major advantage of a native app is that it has the ability to leverage the hardware and software specific to the device. This implies that native apps can utilize the latest technology available on mobile devices. They can also integrate with on-board apps including contacts, calendar, and email.

Note :

In the part 2 of this article, we will look at the merits and demerits of mobile native apps, so that you can compare between web apps and native apps.

About Author :

Jennifer Brown is a software developer and blogger.Currently associated with India based leading mobile application development company Digital Infoware Pvt. Ltd..