Expect mobile experiences to dominate in 2016
- Summary:
- In 2016 every enterprise will have a mobile strategy in place. The question is - what will that strategy look like?
One area that many enterprises are trying to decide on is whether to build mobile apps or mobile websites for consumer-facing services. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options and as Jon Marks, founder of the digital publishing platform Pugpig told us at Gilbane, there isn’t really a clear winner.
To build a mobile app or not to build a mobile app
In his keynote presentation, Marks took us through a little history of mobile and really, the history is not that long and things have changed (and are changing) very quickly.
I think we all remember the Blackberry, but it was the first iPhone that pushed the mobile smartphone market into full gear in 2007. Then the Android arrived in 2008, the iPad in 2010, along with Windows Phone. More recently, we saw mobile apps like SnapChat, Uber and AirB2B, the Apple Watch, and the release of iOS 9. Today, there are over one billion iOS devices and over 1.5 billion Android devices.
According to Marks, the smartphone is set to become the biggest consumer product in history. Consider that:
- You always have one with you
- It knows where you are (location aware)
- You can pay for things with it
The discussion has always been that for mobile you need to create a trimmed down experience because of network speeds, device size/form factor, typical usage and so on. Marks says that’s not true, pointing out that your smartphone is more powerful than most laptops. Today’s smartphones are so much more capable and people use them ALL THE TIME. According to Marks, the “average person unlocks his or her smartphone 110 times each day.”
So mobile is a given. But do you build an app? Or do you stick with a mobile website?
Mobile apps are written in native code that runs in its own runtime on the device. They have access to the device features, are built for touch, can set off notifications, have access to local offline storage, and so on.
Mobile websites run in the browser and are built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, they are searchable and shareable and much more cost-effective to build because they can run on any device.
The differences seem pretty obvious, until Marks tells us:
- App content can be indexed and share deep links (2015 - Android Marshmallow and iOS 9 support)
- Apps can be streamed (2015 - Google App Streaming)
- Web APIs are starting to catch up with device feature access
- Chrome service workers and push notifications are helping mobile websites send push notifications
Marks says that technical capabilities between mobile apps and mobile websites are merging. What’s different is the ecosystem from which apps and mobile website apps are distributed - and the UIs.
Consumers don’t necessarily tell the difference between an app and a mobile website. They don’t care about standards for developing mobile experiences, they just want what they want. And guess what? They rule the world.
Still, should you build a mobile app or a mobile website? Marks offers the following advice. Build an app IF:
- You have a strong brand people relate to
- You can create regular usage habits
- If offline is important
- If you want to integrate with the device ecosystem
- If you want a curated experience
No one knows what the future will look like (Marks predicted the demise of the mobile app in 2017 and now admits he was probably wrong). What is important to remember is that enterprise backends and APIs will change much slower than consumer-facing technology, and that touch is a critical element of the mobile experience.
My Take
I have been looking at different mobile predictions for 2016, and then looking back at what many thought 2015 would bring for mobile.
Mobile marketing was on the list of “must-have” skills for 2015. IDC predicted that 35% of tech marketers would be working on mobile apps, and mobile ecommerce was getting a lot of good and bad attention (think security breaches).
For 2016 the story is similar - Mobile marketing is critical in terms of supporting the entire customer purchase journey from end to end, mobile commerce is on the rise thanks to the efforts of companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, and it’s becoming even more important in the B2B space.
It wasn’t that long ago the talk was “mobile-first”, and in some respects that is true. But I think what is more important and certain is that mobile experiences are changing and are a critical piece of the conversion pie, whether it’s first, middle or last touch.
The decision to build an app over a mobile website isn’t easy and I appreciate Mark’s point that if your brand is not strongly recognized then you might be spending a lot of money for nothing. Start with a mobile website, something that can run across devices and channels. Measure what’s working and what’s not. The app may still come, but at least you’ll have the data to back up the need for it, and the market demand needed to make it successful.
Image credit: experience concept © cacaroot - Fotolia.com