To establish the presence of your business mobiles are no longer a novelty but a necessity

1. Difference between Mobile Optimised Website and Mobile App: What Your Business Needs?
To establish the presence of your business mobiles are no longer a novelty but a necessity. Whether
you have a small or large business, you need to plan out your mobile marketing plan that fits your
customer’s needs. Statistics have shown that maximum people are accessing the internet through
mobile now and out of the maximum are using it through mobile apps. However, you may be left
wondering whether you should go for a mobile optimised website or a mobile app or both? So here
we discuss the differences between the two to help you understand better what you need for your
business.
A mobile website looks similar to any other internet website that uses a browser to display a series
of pages that are configured to fit the small screens of the mobile devices. A mobile app is a program
that can be downloaded and installed on the mobile via device-specific portals and may pull content
from internet or work in offline mode. Though mobile websites and mobile apps may look very
similar initially, both have many differences as discussed here.
Accessibility and connection
While mobile optimised websites are dependent on an internet connection and browser, mobile
apps can be made available offline as well. This indicates that the accessibility of a mobile optimised
website is determined by the speed and availability of internet connectivity and the users need to
actively spend time searching for what they need and waiting for it to load. This can discourage users
who are looking for fast results. On the other hand, mobile apps allow instant access to content
anywhere, anytime once the app is installed on the mobile with a particular operating system. Use of
“native” technologies makes the app very fast and saves valuable time of users and having just a tap-
away accessible app allows the user to be able to check recent updates and ‘just-arrived’ items in a
business.

2. Ease of development, distribution, update, and maintenance
While mobile websites are built using the same technologies as used for building a desktop website,
mobile apps are based on unique programming languages and tools based on the operating system
being used. The mobile websites can be published. Mobile websites can be published and made
accessible immediately via Google searches or typing the URL in the browser directly. Mobile apps,
on the other hand, need to be submitted to the app store of the operating system and the approval
process may be lengthy. It is easy to update mobile websites, and the user only needs to refresh the
browser to access the updated website while mobile app needs to be resubmitted to the app store
for updating and the user needs to update it manually or change settings to auto-update.
Discovery and sharing
Mobile websites can be discovered easily via standard browser searches or typing the URL directly in
the browser, and the users can share the website link via email, social networks, etc. For mobile
apps, a user needs to search the app in the app store, download and install it before using it.
Discovering mobile apps is difficult as limited app store search tools are available and competition is
high. It is also difficult for users to share mobile apps.
Features and functionalities
Mobile optimised websites have limited features such as the simple GPS and “click to call” features,
may be. It is not possible to access the native functionality of the phone with mobile websites. For
example, users cannot use the mobile’s camera or location services when visiting a mobile optimised
website. On the other hand, mobile apps with native functionality for the platform can make use of
very robust features such as camera, GPS, microphone, accelerometer, etc. This is because mobile
apps are designed for their specific platform and can be modified or updated when new software is
released.

3. Communication with users
While mobile websites resort to sending customized emails to customers to update them about the
latest services and offer through regular email campaigns, mobile apps send instant push
notifications to users which may be accompanied with emails or not. Emails may remain unread in
the inbox of the users but push notifications update users in a single, quick, punchy sentence
thereby attracting them while saving their time.
Design interface
The ability to engage users lies in the design. A mobile optimized website needs to modify its
website design and content to fit into the mobile screen of smartphones. Though this makes
everything accessible via the smartphone on a mobile optimised website, the design itself is not
shaped around the screen size of your phone. On the contrary, all mobile apps are specifically
designed to fit the mobile screens and platforms which make the interface of an app much smoother,
more attractive, and easier to navigate.
Determining what your business needs
After knowing the differences between a mobile optimised website and mobile app, you can assess
what your business needs based on the purpose and goals of your business, your target audience,
user experience, and your budget.
If your mode of providing services is mainly through in-person or phone meetings, or have a brick-
and-mortar store at one or two locations, a mobile-optimized website will most likely suffice your
needs and allow customers to reach you. A native mobile app, however, may be needed if you want
to offer a highly interactive to your customers, even in offline mode. Also, if your website is not
working well on mobile devices and hurting traffic, there is a need for a mobile app. A mobile app is
also needed if you want to offer functionality like GPS or camera integration to the users. Thus, your
purpose and goals play an important role in determining if you need a mobile website or app.
Your budget definitely plays a great role in developing individual mobile apps for multiple operating
systems or devices can be resource-intensive and expensive. So, it is advisable to start your mobile
initiative with a mobile website and hire an app developers India later to develop your mobile app
for enhancing your business.
https://www.indianappdevelopers.com/