Essay: Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift

[mouser]

Interesting article on the future business market for mobile sites vs mobile apps:

As of this writing, there's no contest: ship mobile apps if you can afford it. Our usability studies with mobile devices clearly show that users perform better with apps than with mobile sites. (Mobile sites have higher measured usability than desktop sites when used on a phone, but mobile apps score even higher.)...
In the future, the cost-benefit tradeoff for apps vs. mobile sites will change... Now for the $64,000 question — or, more accurately for most companies, the million-dollar question: When will the recommended strategy change? In other words, when will the changeover in favor of mobile sites be strong enough for you to abandon mobile apps?..

http://www.useit.com...bile-sites-apps.html

from http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/7346

[Renegade]

The "site", be it mobile or desktop, is still quite entrenched, but mostly because you can update the application without deployment issues, and because you go the SaaS route with subscriptions and lock people in. He never mentions that, which seemed a bit odd as it's really THE central question for many software developers today, i.e. Where's the money?

FWIW, I'm not really in favour of locking in users. It seems dirty to me. I like software that doesn't require a network connection or rely on external resources that could be cut off by a network connection.

[40hz]

The entire question would be rendered moot if a high quality, high availability, high reliability, cost effective wireless broadband was a reality rather than a marketing spiel.

The tail that wags the dog is the connection to the network. Until it becomes as transparent and worry free as landline telecommunications currently are you can split hairs endlessly and summarize your (likely obvious) findings in $300 reports until the cows come home.

Right now, mobile apps make more sense and provide a better user experience because we don't have enough mobile bandwidth to make any other alternative work across the board. No news there.  Much like the lack of paved roads stalled the adoption of the automobile until everyone got fed up enough with the predations of the railroads that municipalities and states finally built the roads that ultimately sunk the railroads.

Right now, it seems big software publishers are trying to get personal computing to do the opposite and convince people to go from operating their own vehicle to riding a public passenger train instead. "Software as a service" is no different than "transportation as a service" in that regard.

I don't think it's a strategy that's going to pay off in the long run although there may (out of necessity) be short-term consumer acceptance. Or, more correctly, acquiescence.

[Renegade]

I don't think it's a strategy that's going to pay off in the long run although there may (out of necessity) be short-term consumer acceptance. Or, more correctly, acquiescence.

-40hz (February 14, 2012, 07:07 AM)

Wish I could agree...

The SaaS model is going to win out. Why? Because it takes control away from the user. Which is perfectly in line with the rest of the way the world is going...

Seriously.

I mean it.

SaaS will be the predatory vampire that we all dread, and will suck the life out of people for as much cash as possible. It will market itself and deride the stand alone competition. People will acquiesce because they're too busy or lazy or tired to look for an alternative, and you can hardly blame them.

The developers that sell stand alone software will be shunned in the marketplace because over the "life" of a customer, SaaS is more expensive. The Apple store and others like it all seem to be drifting in that direction. They want lock in and they want more money over time. They have the cash flow -- they just want MORE of the cash flow. The case is different for smaller developers, who most often can use the cash NOW and then worry about an upgrade fee later.

Blah. Insert more depressing blathering here.

What would be nice, is to see some really solid frameworks for mobile apps for networking. Still, you have to deal with the network, which, as you said 40, is marketing spiel right now. 

[40hz]

I don't think it's a strategy that's going to pay off in the long run although there may (out of necessity) be short-term consumer acceptance. Or, more correctly, acquiescence.

-40hz (February 14, 2012, 07:07 AM)

Wish I could agree...

The SaaS model is going to win out. Why? Because it takes control away from the user. Which is perfectly in line with the rest of the way the world is going...

Seriously.

I mean it.

-Renegade (February 14, 2012, 07:24 AM)

Oh I'll agree with you up to a point. We are definitely going to see SaaFS. The move toward a walled garden on the part of Microsoft, and to a lesser extent Ubuntu, pretty much guarantees that's where the mainstream will go.

But it's one thing to conquer territory - and quite another thing to hold it.

Ultimately this nonsense (along with IP) will totally wreck the world economy. At which point attempting to create data and platform silos will join the scapheap of failed notions like "divine right","manifest destiny", and "nation building."

IBM was thought unassailable because of their legal and technical prowess. But they were unseated by upstarts. And even something as ruthless as the Third Reich (who had guns and tanks - and uniformed fanboys that would make any of today's most rabid zealots look like casual admirers) eventually fell despite appearing invincible at first. Nothing that is hurtful can continue forever. Rebellion and pushback are inevitable if whoever is doing the hurting can't keep the pain they're inflicting to a manageable level for their victims.

The only problem is, once the rebellion starts, there's always bloodshed and collateral damage.  

Not an intelligent or efficient way to fix our problems even if it is effective.

I'm just hoping (most likely in vain) that we can avoid letting it get to the point where a full scale rebellion is the only option left.