This time AppTalk will focus on the everyday question of web applications vs hybrid applications vs native mobile applications. We'll provide guidance in making the business decision between these approaches. This will be presented through practical real-life cases. The focus will be on mobile applications rather than games.

1. AppTalk Frontline
13.2.2013

2. Agenda
 Welcoming words by Karl Ots, Symbio
 Native, Hybrid or Web app?
 Mobile frontend
 Discussion & networking
2

3. Speaker
 Sebastian de Mel, frontend developer at Exove Oy.
 Been in the web business as a entrepreneur for over 5 years until recently when he joined the
ranks of Exove Oy, whose customers include: Nelonen, Fiskars, Bonnier publication and others.
 Studied algorithms in University of Tampere and has a Media-assistant degree.
 Technologies used in daily work:
 JavaScript, Underscore, jQuery, Zepto etc.
 PhoneGap
 eZ Publish, Drupal, Concrete5
3

4. Native, Hybrid
or Web app?
4

5. Initial questions
Does it make sense?
”According to AppsFire's analysis, by the time you hit the 1000th
app (as far as popularity), you're looking at only 1.76 percent of
users with the program installed. Once you pass the 2000th
program, the number of active installs is barely a blip on the radar.”
Source: PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com/article/181448/Apples_App_Store_100000_Apps_But_Most_Are_Unused.html)
5

6. Initial questions
Does it make sense?
Mobile apps reach ROI is over two times smaller than an mobile websites
Reach
(Persons
per
€)
in
Finland
Mobile
website
Mobile
app
(WP,
Android,
iOS)
Reach
(Persons
per
€)
Mobile
app
(Android)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Assump&ons
in
calcula&on:
-­‐
Mobile
App
(Android)
costs
28
000€
-­‐
Smartphone
penetra&on
38%
-­‐
Mobile
App
(iOS,
Android,
WP)
costs
84
000€
-­‐
Finland’s
popula&on
2012:
5
262
930
-­‐
Mobile
website
costs
28
000€
-­‐
Market
share:
WP
33%,
Android
33%,
iPhone
15%,
other
19%
Data
sources:
-­‐
78%
of
smartphone
users
browse
internet
with
there
phone
6
hPp://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplanet,
Finland
data
set
hPp://wmpoweruser.com/finnish-­‐carrier-­‐data-­‐shows-­‐windows-­‐phone-­‐had-­‐33-­‐market-­‐share-­‐in-­‐june/

7. Initial questions
Do you need it and does it fit your business?
Asked whether he lost a big promotional opportunity by leaving the iTunes
store, he replied: “I don’t need Apple to tell the world the Financial Times is here.
We’ve been here for 120 years.” He added that iOS apps don’t seem to be
working for publishers, as they’re not bringing in enough revenue. Said
Grimshaw: “I’m not sure it’s all that it’s cracked up to be.”
Source: PaidContent.org(http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/23/ft-web-app-success/)
7

8. Initial questions
Are your competitors there? How well are they doing?
AppStore
App
Sweden
Uk
Germany
USA
IKEA
#210
#15
#148
#42
#284
Walmart
NA
NA
NA
#32
H&M
#29
#2
#112
#12
#28
#4
#67
8

9. Decission model
Customer
Content
Use
Company
Development
• Country
• Life&me
• Type
• Goal
• Speed
• Ecosystem
• When
• Where
• Budget
• Quality
• Age
• User
created
• Offline/ • ROI
• Complexity
• Gender
• Private/ Online
• App
Life&me
• Maintenance
Share
• Session
• Features
• Connec&vity
length
• “Max”
delay
9

10. Customer
 Country/Ecosystem
 Age
 Gender
10

11. Customer: Country/Ecosystem
Globally:
Android,
iPhone
Finland:
Android,
Windows
Phone
11
Sources:
WM
Power
User.com,
hPp://wmpoweruser.com/finnish-­‐carrier-­‐data-­‐shows-­‐windows-­‐phone-­‐had-­‐33-­‐market-­‐share-­‐in-­‐june/
Tech
Thoughts.net,hPp://www.tech-­‐thoughts.net/2012/07/global-­‐smartphone-­‐market-­‐share-­‐trends.html#.UUiLAVuPhW0

12. Customer: Country/Ecosystem
2012
Smartphone
ranks
Elisa
consumer
(FIN)
DNA
(FIN)
Sonera
(FIN)
1.
Nokia
Lumia
800
1.
Samsung
Galaxy
Y
1.
Nokia
Lumia
800
2.
Apple
iPhone
4S
2.
Nokia
Lumia
920
2.
Apple
iPhone
4S
3.
Nokia
C2-­‐01
3.
Nokia
Lumia
800
3.
Samsung
Galaxy
Xcover
4.
Samsung
Galaxy
S
III
4.
iPhone
5
4.
Samsung
Galaxy
Gio
5.
Samsung
Galaxy
S
II
5.
Nokia
113
5.
Apple
iPhone
5
12
Sources:
Mobiili.fi,
hPp://mobiili.fi/2013/01/02/dnan-­‐elisan-­‐ja-­‐soneran-­‐suosituimmat-­‐vuonna-­‐2012-­‐nokian-­‐lumiat-­‐parjasivat-­‐hyvin/

13. Customer: Age
13
Sources:
Business
Insider,
hPp://www.businessinsider.com/chart-­‐of-­‐the-­‐day-­‐smartphone-­‐demographics-­‐s&ll-­‐skew-­‐young-­‐and-­‐moneyed-­‐2012-­‐7
Mark&ng
Charts.com,
hPp://www.marke&ngcharts.com/wp/topics/demographics/tablet-­‐adop&on-­‐less-­‐age-­‐dependent-­‐than-­‐smartphone-­‐ownership-­‐in-­‐developed-­‐markets-­‐25824/

14. Customer: Age
14
Sources:
Telecom
Circle,
hPp://www.telecomcircle.com/2011/10/chart-­‐demographics-­‐of-­‐tablet-­‐and-­‐ereader-­‐user/

15. Customer: Age
15
Sources:
Flurry.com,
hPp://blog.flurry.com/bid/90987/The-­‐Truth-­‐About-­‐Cats-­‐and-­‐Dogs-­‐Smartphone-­‐vs-­‐Tablet-­‐Usage-­‐Differences

16. Customer: Sex
16
Sources:
Flurry.com,
hPp://blog.flurry.com/bid/90987/The-­‐Truth-­‐About-­‐Cats-­‐and-­‐Dogs-­‐Smartphone-­‐vs-­‐Tablet-­‐Usage-­‐Differences

17. Content
 Lifetime
 Context
 User created
 Private/Share
 Connectivity
17

18. Content: Lifetime
What is your contents average lifetime?
EXAMPLE:
FACEBOOK
POST
“The
average
Post
Life1me
for
a
Page
is
3
hours
and
7
minutes.
The
median
Post
Life1me
is
2
hours
and
56
minutes,
illustra1ng
that
most
Pages
are
experiencing
Post
Life2mes
around
3
hours.”
Source:
Edgerank
Checker
18
hEp://edgerankchecker.com/blog/2012/01/post-­‐life1me-­‐how-­‐long-­‐does-­‐a-­‐facebook-­‐post-­‐live/

19. Content: Lifetime
Source:
hPp://www.seomoz.org/blog/when-­‐is-­‐my-­‐
tweets-­‐prime-­‐of-­‐life
19

20. Content: When
 When is your app used and in what context?
20
Source:
hPp://searchengineland.com/infographic-­‐how-­‐where-­‐when-­‐people-­‐share-­‐content-­‐100539

21. Content: User created
How much data does your user
produce passively?
How much data can your
user create?
What kind of data do you want
from the user?
Source:
21
hPp://www.byreputa&on.com/User-­‐Generated-­‐Content-­‐Sta&s&cs_a/319.htm

22. Content
 Private/Share
 Is the data private or somethink the user can/should share
 Connectivity
 Does the content need to move trough different devices?
 Is the content a sub-group of larger content?
22

23. Use
 Type
 Where
 Offline/Online
 Session length
 Delay
23

24. Use: Type
 What type of application is
your app?
 Social network
 Game
 Read/consume content
 Produce data/content
24
Sources:
Flurry.com,
hPp://blog.flurry.com/bid/90987/The-­‐Truth-­‐About-­‐Cats-­‐and-­‐Dogs-­‐Smartphone-­‐vs-­‐Tablet-­‐Usage-­‐Difference

25. Use: Where
IN
FINLAND
 Where is your app ment to
be used?
 Some apps, like foursquere
are used on-the-go while
others arn’t location
specific.
 Notice, that location effects
often the use-case 25
Data
sources:
hPp://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplanet,
Finland
data
set

26. Use: Where
 Different use for different
device
 Tablets more entertainment
oriented (76%)
 Smartphones have more wider
use
- Utilities: 17%
- Social Networking 24%
- Entertainent: 42%
* Here entertainment means
Games + Enternainment from the chart
26
Sources:
Flurry.com,
hPp://blog.flurry.com/bid/90987/The-­‐Truth-­‐About-­‐Cats-­‐and-­‐Dogs-­‐Smartphone-­‐vs-­‐Tablet-­‐Usage-­‐Difference

27. Use
 Offline/Online
 If your app is to help fishers, you can asume that it should
support offline use.
 Session length
Related:
Ar&cle
hPp://www.academia.edu/1606806/
The_Effect_of_Context_on_Smartphone_Usage_Sessions
27

28. Use
 Delay
 What is your contents prefered delay.
Example:
- E-mail’s should be notified in ”real-time”
- Blog posts can be ordered in RSS for ”real-time” updating
28

29. Company
 Goal
 The app can have a different goals and the goals should reflect
the apps intended overall lifetime and audience.
 Budget
 Apps cost often much more than websites. The dilemma in a
budget is that if you go to cheep the end result might not make
any impact. Large enough budget is key.
 ROI
 Apps have a smaller reach and each person costs more,
however, you impact can be also greater.
29
Source:
hPp://searchengineland.com/infographic-­‐how-­‐where-­‐when-­‐people-­‐share-­‐content-­‐100539

30. Development
 App lifetime
 App can have a short lifetime, so prepare to promote
 Apps are not a fire-and-forget investment
 Interesting slide show from Pinc Media (little
outdated)
http://www.slideshare.net/pinchmedia/iphone-appstore-secrets-pinch-media
30
Source:
hPp://searchengineland.com/infographic-­‐how-­‐where-­‐when-­‐people-­‐share-­‐content-­‐100539

31. Development: Complexity
 In native approach you will have 3-5 different client
projects and at least one backend.
 In hybrid you will have 1-2 different clients projects and at
least one backend
 In web, you have one client side (if any) and one backend.
Projects increase rapidly
Web: 1-2 projects
Hybrid: 2-3 projects, 50-100% increase from web
Native: 4-6 projects, 300-400% increase from web
31

32. Development: Complexity
Android screen fragmentation increases development and testing complexity
32

33. Development
 Maintenace
 Often more complex = More maintenance
 According to Roy Chomko at Adage Technologie
“ Typically, application maintenance ranges from 15 to 20 percent of the original
development costs. “
Source: http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/07/the-real-cost-of-developing-an-app
33

34. Development
 Features
 Does your app need to heavy calculations?
Example: Augmented reality, image effects etc.
 Does your app produce lot’s of offline data?
 Is your app
34

35. Conclusion
35

36. Comparison: Web/Hybrid to Native
36

37. 37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. 42

43. 43

44. Responsive design
44

45. Responsive design
 MediaQuery
 Enables us to specify css for specific: screen size, orientation and dpi
 Problems
 Mainly used for hiding data
 Loading data we don't see (images etc.)
 Retina content
 Fixes
 Layzy loading with JavaScript
 Dedicated mobile sites can offer better experience
 However, this requires a good detection code
45

46. Examples: Demi, Costume, Exove
46

47. Dedicated mobile site
47

48. Dedicated mobile site
 Service data that is needed, rather than hide it
 User experience can be customized for mobile devices
 Requires redirect logic and possibility to view in desktop mode
 Often has a different use case
48

49. Example: Finnlines
49

50. Example: Finnlines
50

51. PhoneGap
51

52. PhoneGap
 Provides an ”chromeless” web browsers with access to native code
 In theory, you can develope once, use anywhere
 In practise, suffers from the same problems as any web
development (test on every browser enviroment)
 Good of rapid prototyping and developing apps
 Can be hard to get JS/HTML5 to mimic native experience
52

53. Example: Easy Break
53

54. Example: BBC Olympics
NOT
DEVELOPED
BY
EXOVE
54

55. Native
55

56. Example: Golf GameBook
56

57. 57