With numerous websites coming into the picture and the rising penetration of mobile and smartphones in the world, it has become imperative for businesses to take their offerings online, but on mobile. As a result, the two effective ways of reaching to the right audience through this platform is developing a mobile app or a mobile-friendly website.
2 reasons why businesses prefer an app
We have found two major reasons that justify the investment in an app. Having an app can be a desirable and relevant experience, which you can give your target audience on their smartphones.
1. The app built by a company has considerable brand recognition
For instance, big brands like Pepsi can afford to have an app, if not a mobile website. This way, it can connect to its audience, receive feedback, and push new product offers or launches instantly. Here, the app is purposeful.
2. The app is also not a mobile version of the website.
When you have something unique to offer, such as an ecommerce store, that is when an app is useful. This reduces the hassles of the purchase process.
Why should you not have an app?
There are several reasons why even big brands stay away from the need of app. Here are a few reasons that will keep you off from pushing an app for the brand.
- The lesser number of app downloads – All apps, unless they offer something dynamic as a weather update, or health advice, have a limited number of downloads, say maybe 6 to 10 downloads per week
- They occupy space – Which is becoming less in smartphones as more and more multimedia files are transferred/received, and they eat up space.
- Compatibility issues – Not all versions of Android or iPhones are supported by the app.
- App Awareness – it is not easy to get your app noticed easily on Appstore
Why responsive web design is the best solution?
Since there are limitations to the use of an app, many people prefer websites. There are several businesses who have taken to mobile websites. And there are several reasons why any web design company has to offer, will recommend you to do so.
The reasons for developing a mobile website are as follows:
- People search for businesses on mobile browsers and not Appstore
If you wished to find the nearest pizza store or barber, you would use your mobile browser to search for the same. No person would search the same on the app store, and the Appstore would not return relevant results or no results at all. But your mobile website will surely get listed in the search results of Google or other search engines.
- Local businesses are active on the internet
Rarely will you find an app for a local business, unless it is an established franchise? It is easy to list local businesses on the internet and popular search engines do the deed of getting them noticed. But this is fairly difficult when it comes to Appstore. This is not the case with mobile websites, whose SEO can be done, along with paid advertising, to get the business noticed easily.
- Apps are expensive to create and maintain
Apps require a considerable amount of technical expertise for creation and deployment. Any new feature is to be added, then a professional needs to be called in. But this is not the case with responsive websites, wherein new changes can be introduced easily.
So, overall, choosing a mobile website is preferable over an app.
