In today’s world, it is quite evident that the number of users of smartphones and mobile apps has surpassed the number of desktop and website users. This rapid surge in mobile growth can be attributed to the increased popularity of smartphones. Considering this paradigm shift, businesses and enterprises are reflecting and reassessing their strategies. For business owners, choosing between mobile apps and mobile-optimized website development, called, a mobile website can be quite a dilemma considering that each has its pros and cons.
Mobile Apps Vs Mobile websites: What do the statistics reveal?
- According to Statista, the number of mobile phone users globally will cross the 5 billion mark by 2020.
- Estimates made by Sensor Tower Store Intelligence reveal that mobile users across the world spent about 72 billion USD on apps and games in 2018.
- According to the 2018 Comscore study, Amazon’s mobile web audience was larger than its app audience. However, the majority of the user engagement took place through the mobile app with 85% of the time spent on it vs 15 % of the time spent on the mobile web.
Mobile apps and their benefits
A mobile app is a software program created by developers offering the best mobile app development services. Users can download the app and install it on their smartphones. A native mobile app is built and designed to run on specific platforms like Android, Windows, and iOS.
Benefits of mobile apps:
1) Improved user experience (UX)
Mobile apps can be opened just by a mere tap on the screen, whereas for mobile websites, users have to enter the URL of the website in the mobile browser. Thus, a mobile website takes longer to open in comparison to a mobile app. Also, businesses can keep customers informed through push notifications in mobile apps. This leads to better user experience.
2) Customization and Personalization
Mobile apps built by developers offering the best mobile app development services allow users to set their own preferences as soon as they download the app. Users can customize the app to suit their requirements. Mobile apps are capable of tracking user activity and providing recommendations to users based on their past search history. With apps, businesses can send personalized messages and notifications to customers based on various parameters like their location, interests, usage and much more.
3) Offline access
Mobile apps made by developers providing the best mobile app development services are capable of running without the need for an active internet connection. Although internet connectivity is required for performing most tasks, mobile apps offer functionalities in the offline mode too, thus allowing users to access data and information anytime and anywhere they want without the need of a network or wireless internet connection.
Mobile websites and their benefits
A mobile website consists of a collection of web pages linked together. These pages can be accessed on smartphones via. different browsers. Responsive mobile websites differ from traditional websites in that they are designed to work on various platforms and can adjust their display accordingly to the screen size and layout.
Benefits of mobile websites
1) Reaching out to a broader target audience
Mobile websites can be accessed and shared by users on any mobile phone or smartphone, unlike mobile apps that need to be downloaded and installed from the app stores. Also, mobile apps only function on specific platforms like Android or iOS, which is not the case with websites. Thus, businesses can reach out to a greater number of users with responsive mobile websites.
2) Cost and time effective
Creating a mobile website is far cheaper than building a mobile app from developers offering the best mobile app development services. This is especially true when businesses want to create a mobile app for different platforms. Also, the time required for creating a website is less than that required for a mobile app.
3) Update
Unlike mobile apps that require users to download and install updates whenever a new version is released, websites are relatively simple, easy and quick to update. The users don’t even come to know and the update is completed in a jiffy. It requires less efforts and time to make changes in a mobile website compared to a mobile app.
Which one would be a better option for businesses?
Mobile apps and mobile websites, both have their sets of positives and negatives. However, both have their own relevance as well. For businesses and enterprises, the choice to go with a mobile app or mobile website entirely depends on various parameters like the goals, priorities, purpose, target audience and the available budget. If the objective is just to provide user-friendly content to the users, then mobile websites would be apt. However, if businesses want to interact and engage with users, improve customer loyalty and branding, then a mobile app is the best bet!
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