Despite the rapidly increasing interest in mobile content – and the revenue generating potential it offers – uncertainty often exists over whether to develop mobile websites or create downloadable applications.
Ameet Shah, sales and business development director with Five Mobile, has raised some interesting points for those considering producing content for smartphones.
He said that having been in the mobile space for a number of years he is often asked by prospective customers whether they should develop a mobile website or create a downloadable application that runs on the handsets.
Five Mobile creates mobile applications for brands and enterprises across different platforms and handsets.
Shah, who writes regularly on Five Mobile’s blog, said the answer depended on what you were trying to accomplish.
"Web development on mobile phones has long suffered from a very rigid platform and the inability for mobile browsers to keep up with current web technologies," he said.
"This is slowly changing, partially due to the recent spikes in Smartphone handset sales.
"With many handset manufacturers attempting to clone the iPhone’s usability and appeal, a larger focus has been placed on the content on mobile phones.
"This in turn requires better software to render this content."
Shah said that, for example, both the iPhone and Blackberry Bold browsers can view HTML pages and process JavaScript.
While technologies such as Flash have long been rumored to be coming in the near term, he said it will take some time before it’s supported on a large number of devices.
For a full list of Shah’s Pros and Cons for developing mobile web applications, please click here.
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