Do you need an iPhone App or a mobile web-site?
Research from emarketer (see emarketer oct 2010) found what we had long suspected - that Games, Music and Social Media are best handled by dedicated apps - but more interestingly for EVERYTHING ELSE mobile web-sites are preferred.
This has wide consequences for web-development companies who should be taking a sharp intake of morals before recommending that expensive iPhone app should be built when a mobile optimised web-site would be not only cheaper, but more appropriate and successful.
App developers should take note too - it's the Echofons and Spotifys that are being downloaded from the non-games section. That washing-powder comparison app just ain't shifting!
More possibilities...
It's worth considering WHY these findings are true, as there may other apps in the future which join the Music/SN/Games trio.
Games work best natively, because:
- Mobile Javascript is SLLLLOOWWWW
- Flash support is patchy
- HTML games are poo
- Native apps have access to the full abilities of the graphics+sound hardware
Social Networking apps work largely because of push notifications
Music apps work because they can hook in your own local sound files
As mobile HTML specifications gather power, they may one day be able to add notification capabilities (or indirectly via something like a mobile Growl - there's a Start-up for ya!;) Similarly, it should be possible to implement Spotify + iTunes in the cloud for pure HTML delivery
Going the other way however, if you've got something that needs to look as good and work as fast as a game, you really shouldn't write off the app...