Image by Shahadat Rahman (license)
Mobile apps have emerged as a competitive alternative to websites. Although websites are still irreplaceable parts of digital presence for business brands, mobile apps have been forcing them to change. The emergence of Progressive Web Apps (PWA) showcases this shift.
In spite of this overwhelming popularity of mobile apps, many web developers still hesitate to improve their skills and extend their focus on mobile app development. What misconceptions the web developers mostly harbor regarding app development? Well, this is what we are going to explain here.
Mobile Apps still Represent a Small Economy Compared to Web
Yes, this one seems to have some truths. Still, the worldwide web ecosystem represents the vast majority of digital footprints for brands across all sizes and niches. Still, for any business, the branding exercise starts by building a website for the business. Still, most e-commerce stores rely on websites instead of mobile commerce apps. Still, for companies to keep customer communication and service alive, the primary digital medium is the web.
But these findings only represent the truth at the surface. The popularity and dominance of the web have been fast eroding away to make way for mobile apps. Within less than a decade, mobile apps have taken over the digital space enjoyed by the web for so long. Now e-commerce customers are increasingly leaning towards native online store mobile app. for a more personalized shopping experience. Businesses are finding mobile apps as better branding tools. Lastly, the mobile app ecosystem’s growth rate, both in terms of revenue and outreach, has already outpaced the web by miles.
Mobile Web is a Substitute for Mobile Apps
Many web developers think that the mobile web is a substitute for mobile apps. According to them, if you have optimized your existing website for the mobile users in both design and features, you may not require a standalone app. They ignore the fact that the mobile web doesn’t offer all the device integration and key user experience attributes common to mobile apps. Mobile web can just be considered a mobile-specific version of the regular website to help the website offer a better look and feel for the users accessing the website on their mobile devices. But very rarely, the mobile web delivers a typical native user experience of the mobile OS platforms, including iOS and Android.
Mobile web cannot be substituted for mobile apps particularly because of the gamut of value-added native features that they offer. For example, a mobile app working on the Android 10 version will allow more privacy controls. Similarly, a mobile app working on the latest iOS version will allow face recognition for authentication.
Mobile App Projects are Expensive
This is probably the most common misconception among web developers around the world who think since building mobile apps is expensive, they are actually out of small businesses’ reach. The same thinking also prevails among many businesses as well and prevents them from building their own branded app. But in reality, a mobile app can be built at a low budget, provided you keep the project simple with minimum features and UX attributes.
To help low-budget mobile projects, now developers can also embrace a Minimum Viable Projects (MVP) approach with basic features, and they can also use cross-platform development technologies to maximize code reuse while building two app versions for both iOS and Android.
Many people think mobile app projects are expensive because they lack mobile app development expertise, but actually they can hire some mobile app making companies from countries with budding development startups. For example, a small business in the Middle East can consider hiring Irish programmers for its mobile app projects. You always can have a better bargain while looking for talents in different parts of the globe.
You Need to Build the App for Once and All
Many web developers consider building apps a one-time job. They think the app must be built with all the features and UX attributes created once and for all. This thinking neglects the iterative development process that modern app projects mostly follow. In complete contrast to this thinking, a mobile app today is mostly built over time, and the user experience is shaped through several value additions coming with the subsequent updates.
This iterative development approach is best exemplified by the MVP projects that allow building a very basic and minimum featured app with ample scope for changes and further value additions from the developers based on user feedback. Based on the user feedback and user experience, the project can incorporate value additions. The continuous development approach in agile development methodology also offers a similar scope of iteration.
Mobile Apps do not Fit Content Marketing Needs
Many website developers with experience building content-rich websites and blogs consider mobile apps to be more suitable for specific, actionable benefits instead of content marketing. Many think mobile apps do not fit the content marketing needs. Indeed, mobile apps are mostly viewed as solutions to specific problems, while many websites and blogs principally rely on readership.
There are too many great examples of content-rich mobile apps that are known principally for blogs and contents, and loyal users mostly use such mobile apps. Apart from the popular web magazine and news apps, there are an increasing number of content-rich mobile apps that turned from their erstwhile web presence to mobile apps.
Conclusion
Though most web developers are coming out of such misconceptions about mobile app development, the rest need to develop such a mindset. The future of digital presence depends upon how mobile apps and web evolve and get closer. In that regard, the emergence of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) has already set a trajectory.
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