Skip to main content

Five Reasons Why Native App Development Isn't Right for Every Company

When the iPhone first released the App Store as a part of iOS 2.0, they pushed hard for everybody to create native applications for their phone. It certainly made sense for them. If they could create a platform where people could engage with all sorts of content on a singular device, then they could sell a lot of that device.

Certain companies jumped onboard and made quite a name for themselves utilizing this new platform. I'm thinking about social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. These fundamental apps showed the potential of what a company could do with a native app, and it didn't take long for everybody else to jump on the app bandwagon.

But I personally think this was a poor mindset for many companies, this idea that "We need an app because everybody has an app!" Sure, it makes sense for companies like Mojang with their top selling Minecraft: Pocket Edition, but does it really makes sense for every company?

I don't think so, and here are five reasons why.
1. Apps take up phone storage real estate. Apps and their corresponding operating systems are getting bigger and bigger, so consumers are becoming much more conscientious about what they keep on their phones. The "must haves" like Facebook will almost certainly make the cut, but what about something like the Taco Bell app? How many times does a consumer actually order ahead at an already fast enough fast food place? If I need to make more room on my phone, Taco Bell is going to be the first to go. (Side note: I do have the Taco Bell app on my phone!)

2. Web-based applications are becoming more and more powerful. Where mobile web frankly sucked back in the day, it has made great strides in recent years. Now, browsing the web via a browser like Safari or Chrome is much more user-friendly than it used to be. Moreover, the Android platform has figured out a way to basically get the native app experience onto the web without requiring the download of an app itself. These new technologies are quickly eclipsing the need for native applications in the future. 

3. Development of native applications require balance across multiple platforms. If you're going to go down the "native app" road, then you're probably going to be interacting with three platforms: mobile web, iOS, and Android. Obviously, these are three different platforms with three different ways of doing things. This is not an easy thing to keep balanced. For example, my beloved Nintendo has still yet to ship Super Mario Run onto Android's Google Play store for what I can only assume has to do with technical difficulties. If you want to keep a consistent consumer experience, you'll have to get good at balancing these platforms. And speaking of keeping up with these platforms...

4. Native applications require a lot of upkeep. Both iOS and Android have major updates at least once a year, and those updates often require native apps to update themselves to remain fully functioning. A rumor currently circulating about the upcoming iOS 11 is that developers will be required to update their apps to 64-bit architecture or potentially cease working. One report I read says that this will effectively shutdown 187,000 existing apps. This serves as a solid example that app upkeep is real and necessary. (Which also means ensuring that your development team can keep up with these changes.)

5. People don't have regular interactions with many companies. This reason, in my mind, is the most important business driver in choosing whether or not to have a native application. For the aforementioned social media sites, a native app is a no brainer. But what about, for example, a car manufacturer? People don't buy cars that often, so why would they need an app taking up real estate on their phone that goes untouched for years? Amongst the other reasons shared in this post, it seems that the more sensible thing to do would be to pour more effort into the web-based experience. This is the primary question that a company should ask themselves before jumping onto the native app bandwagon. Otherwise, the ROI could probably be very low.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: "The Dip" by Seth Godin

If you think you've seen this book before, you're probably not mistaken. It's not a new book at all. It came out in 2007, and the first time I read this book was actually back in 2011. For personal reasons, I chose to pick it back up, and I'll talk about that in a separate post. Having been five years since my last read, I'm glad I dug this back up. It's a pretty teeny book, as you can see in the image below. A person can definitely breeze through the entire book in an hour or two. Anyway, this is a book review! How does this book hold up in the nine years since it's initial release? Let's get into it.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Christian Civil War of 2016

There's no doubt that the outcome of the recent election had arguably the most divisive outcome in American history. People have not been afraid to voice their anger and concerns about Trump's election on social media. From what I've seen, the most vocalization has come from the left, and I honestly haven't seen a lot of overt support from the right. (That's another topic altogether.) What has quietly gone unaddressed is another issue that has stemmed from the election: a Christian civil war. As somebody who cares for the church, this something I definitely think needs addressed sooner rather than later.
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Mindful of Invisible Scripts

Whether we like it or not, assumptions pretty much drive our lives. We learn to live not because we have analyzed a certain matter thoroughly. Rather, much of what we know today was ingrained in us in our adolescent development. Some of these are more obvious. Take going to college, for example. When I graduated from high school, something like 90% of my graduating class planned on pursuing some sort of college education. Even if my parents didn't encourage me to go to college (they did), it still seemed like the thing I needed to do. But some things aren't so obvious. There are subtle things people do and say that guide our choices in a way we are oblivious to.
Post a Comment
Read more

Being Transparent about LYEATT's Analytics

I'm going to break off from my usual explanation of whatever trending idea to be open with you all about some stuff. I chose Blogger as the platform for this blog because it's housed under Google, and I find Google to be a trustworthy company. What I did not realize is the extent to which Blogger provides analytics. Obviously, I can't see exactly who is reading this blog, but I can see a number of other things. I can see where traffic is coming from, whether from LinkedIn or Twitter. I can also see how many times people have viewed each post. And I can also tell you that I wrote my first zero-view post recently. Also, to date, there has never been a single comment on any post. I'm not going to share which post that is because viewership is not the purpose of this blog, nor am I looking for anybody to comment now. But I will say that it is a little disheartening. This would normally have been the point where I'd shut down the blog and labeled it a failure. Bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

You're Out of Excuses

The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is $50 and often goes on sale for cheaper than that. You can get free wifi almost anywhere, including most McDonald's locations. The best email platforms, Gmail and Yahoo, are free . Almost all social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are free . My blog is hosted on the Blogger platform, which is free to use. If you have a library card, you can probably checkout digital ebooks for free via Overdrive. Apps like WhatsApp allow you to make calls to people for free . Interacting with people on social forums like Reddit is free . The barriers to entry have been lowered significantly. You don't have an excuse why you're not making yourself better anymore.
Post a Comment
Read more