Pick Your Poison – Mobile Web, Native, or Hybrid?

Shane Church | Technical Leadshane.church@effectiveui.com

Blog: http://www.s-church.net

http://www.effectiveui.comTwitter: #effectiveui

Introduction

Thank You

http://www.uncubedspace.com/

Why Does Your Mobile Experience Matter?

-Harris Interactive, November 2010

69%

32%

13%

Say if a mobile app is not useful, it results in a negative perception about the brand

Have told others about a bad experience with a mobile app

Have avoided downloading applications from a company due to a previous bad experience with another app offered by that brand

-Harris Interactive, November 2010

66%

57%

Have downloaded an app based on a review or recommendation

Have recommended an app because of a positive experience

An-droid

iOS

Blackberry

Symbian

Windows Phone LinuxOthers

Q2 2012

Android

iOS

Blackberry

Symbian

Windows Phone Linux Others

Q2 2011

Worldwide Smartphone Market Share

Source: IDC

What do each of the technology choices entail?

The Available Poisons

Mobile Web

Accessed over the Web, Mobile Web apps are built using Web technologies including HTML5 and JavaScript.

Pros: Lowest barrier to first time use Cost effective multi-device support You control application updates Broadest possible reach

Cons: Limited access to device hardware User interactions not native

Mobile Web Examples

http://www.bostonglobe.com http://m.foodandwine.comhttp://usa.kapersky.com

Hybrid

Built using a combination of HTML5 and JavaScript and packaged with a framework like PhoneGap or Appcelerator Titanium or a custom native shell

Pros: Full device capabilities Cost effective multi-device support Sticky app and control over content

Cons: User interactions not native Need to build native wrappers for multiple platforms

Hybrid Examples

Logitech Squeezebox(PhoneGap)

DirectTrac(Orubase)

NBC(Appcelerator)

Native

Built using platform native languages and tools like Objective-C for iOS, Java for Android, and .NET for Windows Phone

Pros Sticky application access Richest interactions can be built Full device capabilities available

Cons Need to build for multiple platforms Typically more expensive to build Requires specialized developer expertise for each platform

Cross-Platform Native

Built using .NET and Xamarin’s Mono Touch for iOS and Mono for Android and Visual Studio for Windows Phone

Pros Same pros as traditional native development Use a common development language 70-90% code reuse between platforms

Cons Some delays in accommodating OS updates Dependence on a third party vendor

Native Examples

iOS Android Windows Phone 7

Pearson eCollege

Native Examples

iOS Android Windows Phone 7

Chase Mobile Banking

What does Facebook’s switch from HTML5 to native on iOS mean?

The Facebook Conundrum

Facebook abandons HTML5 on iOS

Facebook Kisses HTML5 Goodbye With Rebuilt iOS AppMacNewsWorld – August 25, 2012

InfoWorld – September 6, 2012

“We deliberately made a trade off to get to scale. We used HTML5 to test and try things out, and people love that in the browser, but they have different expectations of a native IOS app. So with this release we rebuilt the app from scratch over the last 9 months and the main improvement is performance. Now there’s a lot more code built in Objective-C than HTML5.”

Mick JohnsonFacebook iOS Product Manager

"HTML5 is still incredibly important to us. We get two times the mobile traffic [on m.facebook.com] than from iOS and Android combined."

Mick JohnsonFacebook iOS Product Manager

A guide to selecting the right technology approach for your application

How to Pick Your Poison

Ruling Out the Mobile Web Do you need access to device hardware capabilities like the camera, or

accelerometer? Do you need a presence in the app stores (Google Play, iTunes, Windows

Phone Marketplace)? Does your app need to take advantage of push notifications?

Going Native Does the app need to perform any processor or graphics intensive

operations like 3D graphics or real-time calculations i.e. most games? Does the app need to be functional offline? To what degree?

Am I a Hybrid? What is the goal the user wants to accomplish by using your app? How sensitive is the app to variance in network performance? What is the platform matrix that you want to support? What is your tolerance for supporting multiple apps and operating systems? What percentage of the market are you comfortable ignoring?

How I Addressed This Question For An EffectiveUI Client

Case Study

Cartegraph Targeting Municipal Governments Needed an app for mobile field workers who processed multiple work orders

for assets such as signs, benches, and fire hydrants Already in the process of developing a Web-based tracking application for

desktop clients Needed the ability to upload pictures and access mapping functionality

Cartegraph

The User Is Key

We now have the foundation for easy to deploy, composite applications.

But those applications will live or die on the acceptance of their human interfaces.

Anthony FrancoEffectiveUI Founder and President

There Is No One Right Answer

Remember That User Experience Matters

Recommended Tools and References

Mobile Web Development Tools jQuery Mobile – http://jquerymobile.com/ Sencha Touch – http://www.sencha.com/ Twitter Bootstrap – http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/

Native Development Tools Apple iOS – https://developer.apple.com/ Google Android – http://developer.android.com/ Windows Phone – http://dev.windowsphone.com/ Blackberry – http://developer.blackberry.com/

Hybrid Development Tools PhoneGap – http://phonegap.com/ Appcelerator Titanium – http://www.appcelerator.com/ SyncFusion Orubase – http://orubase.com/ appMobi – http://appmobi.com/ Motorola RhoMobile –

http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/Business+Product+and+Services/Software+and+Applications/RhoMobile+Suite

Corona – http://www.coronalabs.com/

Articles ASP.NET MVC 3 - Develop Hybrid Native and Mobile Web Apps

Shane Church – MSDN Magazine – March 2012http://msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/hh852592

Facebook For iOS App Is Now 2X FasterJosh Constine – TechCrunch – August 23, 2012http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/23/facebook-for-ios-faster/

Windows Phone - Building an App for Both Windows Phone and iOSAndrew Whitechapel – MSDN Magazine – October 2012http://msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/jj658972

Thank you!

Shane Church | Technical Leadshane.church@effectiveui.com

Blog: http://www.s-church.net

http://www.effectiveui.comTwitter: #effectiveui

Questions and Discussion

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