We find advanced mobile technology today and new versions on major platforms are often released for the benefit of the users. Obviously, this has led to the exponential increase in the mobile usage and has set a new pathway for the business persons to survive in the virtual world. During the last years, developing a responsive design or the mobile-friendly website emerged as the prime method for addressing the growing mobile users. As technology advance further, users experience evolve, people’s preference changes and the responsive website is taken over by mobile apps.
In fact, the time spent on mobile devices is mainly due to the apps. Though a responsive website engages the visitors, a native app successfully provides the crafted experience the users’ expect. Moreover, a responsive website is the part of the mobile strategy. It represents the website with the same purpose and organisation a desktop would deliver, i.e., it is a repackage of the existing functionality at its best.
Whereas, the mobile experience takes the user to the next level. The experience could be designed for the user’s purpose which is actionable and accessible. The merchants may engage the users with push notifications and other messages to achieve targets sales. A mobile app shortens the distance of the goals set by the business persons.
For instance, a visitor wants to call up the grocery store to check the details of some products or his account or whatever in his mind. With the responsive website, he has to visit the website, navigate the directory, search for the customer care number, copy it and then call. The same situation could be handled in a better way with the grocery app. He just has to open the app, open the directory from the home screen and tap to call the concerned person. Besides the upgraded user experience, it saves the time of the user.
Moving further, the apps are able to take benefit of the server side logic and enhance the performance. A well-planned mobile app possesses only the relevant web pages with workflow, features, payment system, and more giving a fully integrated and rich mobile experience.
A mobile application becomes necessary when the app is dependent on the functionality which uses the phone’s camera, geolocation, faster load time with large data, high monetization for the Android app developers, social media, utilization of the special APIs, and more giving a better user experience with high performance.
On the other hand, a responsive website becomes necessary to gain exposure through search engine rankings, save the time required for the update of the apps as it is easy to update the website, compatibility across every device namely computer, mobiles, tablets, and, etc., and mention not to say, responsive design costs less than the mobile application development.
As a final word, keep your end users in mind, work towards the responsive website complementing with the app development for a true mobile strategy implementation.
