Apps cool but Web ain't dead yet

The popularity of the iPhone has sparked an interest in "apps", which is short for applications. These refer to software programmes that allow you to access online content and services seamlessly.

Although apps can be useful on a PC environment the "web vs apps" debate is particularly relevant in the context of the mobile platform because of the limitations of the mobile web. Apps can help to deliver a smoother usability experience.

Those who own iPhones will swear by apps and argue that it's the way to go. But the mobile world does not only consist of iPhones. There are many other brands out there. Downloading apps is not practical on all phones and impossible on some.

There's no denying that apps really do provide a better user experience. If you want to access Facebook or Twitter or Gmail on the phone, you can do this by visiting their respective websites through your phone's browser. Or you can do this by using apps that can be downloaded to your smart phone.

If you choose the former, you will find it's a slow, cumbersome experience. If you choose the latter, not only will you be able to do things more quickly, you'll find there are more functionalities and features too.

That's because apps give developers greater design control and access to some hardware features specific to the phone that mobile browsers aren't able to do.

It would appear then that apps win hands down. But things are not so simple. As mentioned earlier, not all phones are iPhones where locating, downloading and installing apps is an easy affair.

In real life

To illustrate how complicated it can be to download and use an app on other phones, I'll share with you a real life experience. I once met an entrepreneur who owned a TV production house and he wanted to get some of that content onto the mobile phone. The route he chose was apps.

He enthusiastically showed me the app he had on his phone and demonstrated how it could play video and audio clips, push text and photos to the user and encourage user participation by way of quizzes and polls. It all worked smoothly, of course.

Then I pulled out my phone, which was a non-iPhone smart phone. I asked him for the web address to download the app, which he promptly supplied. I showed him the phone's screen while the app was downloading.

When it was done, I passed him the phone and asked him to locate the app for me. He toyed around with my phone for about a minute and gave up. "I'm not familiar with your phone," he said. "So, I don't know where downloaded apps reside."

Guess what, most owners of non-iPhone smart phones phones don't know where downloaded apps go to either.

But that's not the end of my story. I found the app on my phone and showed it to the entrepreneur. "Help me place a shortcut of this app onto my home screen," I said. Of course he had no clue how to do that. Neither would most people.

It doesn't matter what brand of phone you own, unless it's an iPhone, it's not easy to download, locate and display apps on your phone.

I can already hear the geeks declaring, "That's not true!". But it is true for the majority of the people out there, who are not geeks.

Fierce debate

When I posted some tweets on this topic, it triggered a fierce debate with some app developers who insist that apps are the way forward. One argument they gave is that in Japan, apps are all the rage, even on non-iPhones.

That's true but the Japanese mobile eco-system is completely different from ours. In Japan, the telcos are sufficiently big that the phones they issue come customized with apps. In Malaysia, it's a different scenario where people buy their phones from third party vendors. You have to download your own apps.

There's also an argument in favour of mobile web from a developer's standpoint. Once you design a mobile website according to dotMobi standards, it's a one-size-fits-all situation. Your mobile website will work on any phone with a web browser.

In contrast, an iPhone app will not work on a Blackberry. And a Blackberry app will not work on a Nokia phone. And so on. Developing different apps for different phones can be costly.

Although I am very much pro-web when it comes to the mobile platform, it doesn't mean I'm against apps.

If I were to advise a company - actually I am doing just that with BFM 89.9 - I would say, launch a dotMobi-compliant website first to make sure your content is accessible to as wide a range of mobile users as possible. Then, if you wish to, you can devote some resources to developing an iPhone app, a Blackberry app, an Android app and so on depending on your audience demographic.

So, it's not an either/or situation. A company can, and perhaps should, offer both web and apps if it can afford the development costs of doing all this.

OON YEOH's new social media book 'Like Me, Follow Me' has just been published by MPH. You can connect with him via Facebook and Twitter.