Presentation given at Design4Mobile conference about choosing between native apps and mobile web.

1. Native vs Web
Jason Grigsby • Design4Mobile
@grigs on Twitter • jason@cloudfour.com
cloudfour.com/blog • mobileportand.com
SLIDES: bit.ly/grigs-d4m2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hi-phi/54828371

6. Why are we fighting?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff-bauche/2230236391/sizes/o/

7. “We have been trying to come up with a solution to let
developers write applications, yet keep the iPhone secure and
safe. We’ve come up with a sweet solution.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acaben/541334636/

8. Web Developers
Web Developers
Mac Developers
Mac Developers
Web Developers
Mac Developers

9. Web aDevelopers
“That is bold idea. Very forward
thinking... This is the coming out
party for web apps. We are very
Macexcited about this. These are
Developers
exciting times.”
— Jason Fried, 37signals

10. “Perhaps it’s playing well in the
mainstream press, but here at WWDC,
Apple’s “you can write great apps for the
Mac Developers
iPhone: they’re called ‘web sites’” —
message went over like a lead balloon.
Web Developers
If all you have to offer is a shit sandwich,
just say it. Don’t tell us how lucky we are
and that it’s going to taste delicious.”
— Jon Gruber, Daring Fireball

11. Which is better? Who’s going to win?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsymmetry/166749290/

15. October 2007 Announcement
AppStore Launch July 2008

16. Surprise Story of 2008
Flickr photo by Drift Words: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124413076@N01/11846265/

17. Flickr photo by Civisi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/civisi/2611679744/
Web 2.0 iPhone App Store
Web-based Apps Native Apps
Services & Mashups Few APIs between apps
Software as Service No Recurring Revenue
Cloud Computing Local Storage

18. What makes the App Store successful?
Carriers App Store
Open to anyone
Openness Closed, Seek permission
who signs agreement
Entry Cost Thousands of dollars $99
Revenue Split 60/40 to 50/50 70/30
Restrictions Many Few
Releases Difficult, Timely 1 to 2 weeks
Micropayments Inconsistent iTunes for every phone

19. 120 million
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/shoot-is-iphone.html#c148364123
devices
315,634
http://www.newsweek.com/id/174266
apps
6.5 billion
http://businessweek.com/@@0M43kIYQYKPISw0A/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080930_257832.htm downloads

23. http://www.flickr.com/photos/digobaptista/3270435022/

24. Native Mobile Apps
vs.
Mobile Web Apps

25. Native Mobile Apps
vs.
Mobile Web Apps
Mobile is Bigger than Just Apps

32. Plants vs. Zombies

35. URLs Don’t Open Apps

36. The ‘U’ in URL stands
for Universal*
* it actually stands for
‘uniform.’ close enough ;-) http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/255852260/sizes/o/

37. A mobile
website
for every
iPhone
app.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoosvanrobin/4932854288/sizes/l/

38. More ways
iPhone
AppStore
skews
perceptions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/earlysound/2710970750/ Creative Commons

39. Do Apps Create
Platform Lock-in?
If you've bought $200 worth of
applications for your
smartphone, you're much less
likely to switch to a different
model in the future.
In short, high spending on
smartphone apps ensures long-
term platform loyalty.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fxp/2374147405/sizes/l/

40. Do Apps REALLY Create Platform Lock-in?
App Cost
Twitter for iPhone Free
Reeder $2.99
Instapaper $4.99
Facebook Free
1Password $9.99
Total $17.97
Switching Costs are Lower

41. Are App Stores Essential to a Platform’s Success?

42. http://www.techpaparazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/apps.jpg

44. Android Outsold iPhone in Q2 2010
Symbian RIM Android iPhone Windows Linux
Others
2%2%
5%
14%
41%
17%
18%
Android 17%, iPhone 14%
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013

45. Why compare mobile to the PC market?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mesq/413104380/sizes/o/

48. Ringtone Apps
(FYI: Justin’s app is out soon. FitnessTrack. $2.99)
http://twitter.com/justin/status/1210786170
http://furbo.org/2008/12/09/ring-tone-apps/
http://furbo.org/2009/02/16/raising-prices/

49. Ringtone Apps
15000
11250
7500
3750
0
0 1.99 3.99 5.99 7.99 9.99 11.99 13.99 15.99+
http://148apps.com/10000

50. Brutally Honest iPhone App Sales:
$32k Spent vs. $535 Revenue
Dapple
http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-numbers-post-aka-brutal-honesty/

51. Throwaway Apps
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

52. Throwaway Apps
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

53. Success Determined by Top Lists & Features
http://appcubby.com/blog/files/financial_realities.html

54. More Open ≠ No Gatekeeper
96%
Approved
(what about that 4%?)

55. 10 Rejected Applications
• Obama Trampoline
• MyShoe
• I Am Poor
• The South Park App
• Pull My Finger
• iBoobs
• Slasher
• Murderdome
• Podcaster
• Freedom Time
"Even though my personal political leanings are
Democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly
half our customers. What's the point?" — Steve Jobs
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887-2/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html

56. “We view Apps different than books or
songs, which we do not curate. If you
want to criticize a religion, write a book. If
you want to describe sex, write a book or
a song, or create a medical app.”
— Apple AppStore Guidelines

58. Where is the scale & recurring revenue?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/the-hundred-million-dollar-mobile-app-question/

60. Symbian Windows Mobile
Objective C WebOS
C
Java ME Dalvik
Palm
Visual Basic
C++
.NET Compact
BREW
Flickr photo by André-Batista: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=408700622&size=o

61. Google Mobile — App Challenges
• Pressure from CEO for rapid releases
• 10+ platforms to support
• Over 100 different builds
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83731031@N00/445924458/ • http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcdave/142758127/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliejohnson/290541732/

62. Fragmentation:
This is what the
web is supposed
to solve.
Flickr photo by .Hessam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/essamo/1070527547/

63. WebKit & HTML5: Dominant Mobile Platform
2009 Smartphone Market
Share (Gartner)
14%
Symbian 1%
Blackberry 4%
iPhone
Android 47%
WebOS 14%
Windows/Others
Phones currently shipping or
projected to ship using 20%
WebKit in blue (85%).
By contrast, 10 smartphone operating systems.

67. The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/2743756315/sizes/l/

68. CHALLENGE:
Find a single report that doesn’t show
exponential growth for mobile web.

71. Flirtomatic
$15M in Revenue
• $12 per month from 175,000
paying customers
• 30% use the service seven
times a day
• Sold 28,000 virtual gifts in the
five days between Boxing Day
and New Year’s Eve
Source: http://bit.ly/cck1xE | http://bit.ly/dpHbak

72. Our iPhone app has been a Top 10 iPhone
reference application for almost two years with
almost six million downloads, and even with
all of the great chart positions and visibility –
just as many iPhone consumers use our
mobile website as the application.
—Kevin Nakao, Chief Operating Officer, Whitepages.com
http://mashable.com/2010/06/10/why-you-may-not-need-a-mobile-app/

73. Mobile Web Distribution
Carriers App Store Mobile Web
Closed, Seek Open to anyone
Openness Completely Open
permission who signs agreement
Entry Cost Thousands of dollars $99 None
Revenue Split 60/40 to 50/50 70/30 100%
Restrictions Many Few None
Releases Difficult, Timely 1 to 2 weeks Instantaneous
Micropayments Inconsistent iTunes for every phone Not yet

74. Ok Hot Shot, How are You Going to Create
Super Monkey Ball with HTML?
<div id=”bridge”
class=”rope”>
<div id=”bubble”>
<span id=”monkey sprite-
replace”>
Monkey</span>
jquery-banana.js
Some Applications Have to Be Native

75. Six Common Reasons for Native Apps
Performance
Offline Mode
Findability
Device Attributes
Monetization
Experience
Flickr photo by John Wardell (Netinho): http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=760902403&size=l

76. Not for all applications
Good enough for many applications
Javascript Performance improving
Hardware Accelerated CSS
Web developers must improve
Flickr: Uploaded February 11, 2007 by hawridger

77. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

79. We’ve Become Bandwidth Gluttons
Since 2003:
• Web Page Size Tripled
•# of Objects Doubled
Since 1995:
• Web Page Size: 22x
•# of Objects: 21x
Source: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/average-web-page/

80. Yahoo!’s 14 Performance Rules (Now 34!)
1. Make Fewer HTTP Requests 8. Make JavaScript and CSS External
2. Use a Content Delivery Network 9. Reduce DNS Lookups
3. Add an Expires Header 10.Minify JavaScript
4. Gzip Components 11.Avoid Redirects
5. Put Stylesheets at the Top 12.Remove Duplicate Scripts
6. Move Scripts to the Bottom 13.Configure ETags
7. Avoid CSS Expressions 14.Make AJAX Cacheable
Source: http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

81. Offline Support
• HTML 5
• Client-side Database Storage API
• Application Cache
• Essentially SQLite in browser
• Available on iPhone since 2.0
• Google Gears, Android, Nokia soon?

82. Gmail Using HTML5

83. 315,000 Apps
&
Findability?
http://148apps.com/10000

85. Geolocation API
Camera
Address Book
Accelerometer

86. Flickr photo by Lyza Gardner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyza/49545547/

87. Immersive Experience
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esi_design/4548281713/sizes/l/

90. Mobile Web Experience Biggest Challenges
Position: Fixed
Accelerated Scrolling

91. Flickr photo by Thomas Purves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomaspurves/744225198/

93. What Can You Do With PhoneGap?
http://phonegap.com/projects

98. Hybrid
Apps?
Yes
we
can

99. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
Device Detection Phone Gap
Add Functionality
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

100. Apps for Your Most Loyal Customers
iPhone App Generated $400M in 2009

101. Reward People for Downloading Your App
Take Advantage of Mobile Capabilities

102. Native vs Web
We’re all brothers here.

103. Overtime Debate Format: Battle Rap
Matthias Shapiro & Jason Alderman, Ignite Salt Lake

104. Mobile Web vs. Native vs. Hybrid? Yes.
Jason Grigsby
Slides: bit.ly/grigs-d4m2010
@grigs • jason@cloudfour.com
cloudfour.com • mobileportand.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/2100627902/