Mobile apps are the applications that we install on our mobile devices. Mobile websites are the same as that of the normal website which is based on browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and can be checked using internet connection. The difference lies in the fact that a mobile website is designed particularly for mobile devices like smartphones. Nowadays mobile app development is preferred over mobile websites due to the following reasons mentioned below:
- Mobile Apps Provide Better Personalization: Personalization means providing customized communication to the user according to their location, interests, taste, and preferences. Offering personalized experience to users is much easy with Mobile apps than as compared to mobile websites. Users can set-up their preferences and then based on it they can be sent personalized content. Mobile apps also facilitate to track the user engagement and use it to send recommendations and keep them posted about any new information. Also, the real-time location of the users can be identified and they can be sent geography-specific content. Personalization also helps in increasing the conversion rate as when the users feel that they are valued there are more chances of making a conversion.
- Sending Notifications is Easy in Mobile Apps: E-mail was the most used business communication tool to get in touch with the users but with the advent of mobile apps its effectiveness has reduced. It has become very easy to sent notifications via mobile apps. Push and in-app notifications can be sent for communicating with the users. The facility to send immediate, non-intrusive notifications to the users are the reasons why most businesses prefer to have mobile apps. The notification which users can get only if they have opened the app while push notifications are those notifications which users can get in spite of not doing any activity on their mobile phones.
- Mobile Apps can Use Features of Mobile Device: List of contacts, camera, GPS, compass, and many other features of a mobile device can be used by mobile apps in order to make the user’s experience more interactive, easy and entertaining. For example, if a user is filling a form on a banking app for opening a new account, he might have to submit his photo in this process. Using the mobile device camera feature the user can instantly click his photograph and submit it immediately within few seconds. On the other hand, mobile websites have some technological restrictions in using all features which are possible with mobile apps.
- Mobile Apps can be Used Offline: Mobile apps need to have internet connectivity although some basic content can be accessed while being in offline mode. For example, in a banking app you may not be able to do transactions if you are not having internet connectivity but some features like calculation of tax, installment, etc. can be used without an internet connection which is not possible as such on a mobile website. Very limited functions can be used on the Mobile website.
- Mobile Apps offer Freedom of Designing: Mobile websites depend on browsers to carry out even basic operations. They rely on features of browsers such as the refresh button, back button, or address bar to function. While mobile apps are free from such kind of limitations. Mobile apps are capable of being designed with a number of complex functions such as drag, hold, tap, swipe, etc. These gestures are helpful for users to carry out a task in a much better way. For instance, users can move to a next or previous page making use of swipe gestures in a mobile app.
- Mobile Apps are more used by User: People spend more time on mobile phones using mobile apps than on mobile websites. Users mostly like to spend their time on gaming apps and social media mobile apps.
- Apps Work Faster in Comparison to Websites: Website usually stores their data on web servers while mobile apps data is stored on mobile devices. Also, a mobile website uses Javascript code to work on various functions while mobile apps use a framework which makes the apps run five times faster than a website. Therefore, mobile apps work more quickly as compared to a mobile website.
- Mobile Apps Helps in Presenting a Brand Effectively: Most of the users spend a considerable time on their mobile devices and in the meantime, they intentionally or unintentionally come across the mobile apps installed on their phones on daily basis. This continuous encounter can be considered as an opportunity for the brands to mark their presence as when users are not using the app they remember the brand that is connected with the app. The app icon act as a mini-ad for the brand.
How much does it cost to build an iOS app from offshore India.