MobileMonday Austria

MoMo #10: 220 visitors interested in App vs. Web

Looking at Austria´s TOP 100 companies, only 17 are running a mobile app, says Alexander Reiberger from Fonda.
After yesterday’s exciting discussion at the Museum of Natural History we see this fact from a different perspective, because: It might be a good idea to think about an app decision twice.

„It is a big effort to develop native apps for every operating system in order to reach all your customers, whereas a mobile web site is developed once and allows me to reach out to all smartphone users.“, says Olaf Nitz from Österreich Werbung about the mobile web as an alternative to native programmed mobile apps.

HTML5 not yet there

„But still, mobile apps offer a better user experience“, says Peter Steinberger who develops iOS applications. Even though HTML5 is supposed to blur the lines between a good app and a mobile web user experience, a native app still offers the big advantage of being found easily in an app store. It is easier to build great marketing around apps than around mobile web links.

But Olaf Nitz is still wondering how to justify the high costs associated with native app development: „As an entrepreneur, I wonder if a slightly better user experience makes up for development costs that might be four times higher than for a mobile web solution.“

Go Hybrid?

Will hybrid apps, a mixture between a native app and mobile web, offer a solution in the end? Martin-Hannes Giesswein from Nokia explains the advantages of their hybrid platform: „With the help of our developer platform Qt, we enable the programming of hybrid apps, which combine the advantages of apps in general (easy to use, recommendation and ranking in the store) with the diversity which mobile web content offers. Nokia has been developing the mobile browser constantly and therefore allows the use of all standards, such as Flash and HTML 5.”

At the end of the discussion, all panelists agree that before taking a decision on app or web, the value for the user must be made clear: „If you are a hotelier and can’t add any value for the user with a mobile web or an app, you should probably better offer a massage for free to attract customers.“, says Gerhard Günther from Digital Sunray, who was the host of the evening.

Check our website on www.mobilemonday.at for pictures, a video summary and great interviews with our panelists!

We are still speechless about 220 people who joined our MoMo yesterday! We want to thank you and hope to see you soon again!

Your MoMo Austria Team

MoMo#10: Apps vs. Mobile Web. And the winner is...

There is hardly another topic that pays more attention in the mobile area than the battle between native app and mobile browser. For that reason together with you we will take up the fight on the next MoMo.

All we need is …

According to asymco.com more than 60 Apps have been downloaded for every iOS device sold. In other words the iTunes App Store is about to reach 10 billion downloads. A good reason for companies to invest their money in app development.

BUT on the other hand comscore.com pointed out that three out of four mobile user favor the browser for product information or blogging as well as news, videos or local information like wetter. So - who will win the fight? 

The battle

We invite you to take part in an exciting “battle” with our guest speakers:

• Alexander Reiberger, Fonda, www.fonda.at
• Peter Steinberger, petersteinberger.com
• Michael Kieslinger, Fluidtime, www.fluidtime.com
• Olaf Nitz, Österreich Werbung, www.olafnitz.net
• Florian Angulanza, utilo, www.utilo.eu

Together and against each other we will discuss topics like:

• When to use an app or a mobile website?
• What are the advantages or disadvantages of each medium?
• Which are the main points a company should keep in mind to take the right decisions?

Be our referee and visit the MoMo#10 “Apps vs. Browser. And the winner is…” on 21st March 2011

Register via XING