Businesses and publications have been wrestling with “mobile publishing” for a relatively short time. Apple’s iPhone was introduced in 2007, and the iPad tablet in 2010. Other portable devices, like laptops, have been around much longer. However, the modern smartphone/tablet phenomenon — and the pressure created by the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend — have created a sense of urgency that’s hard for businesses to ignore.

1. Development cost is the main barrier to success for a business or
publisher who needs to create a mobile presence. Among the
biggest development decisions is whether to create a native app
for all smartphone or tablet platforms, or to depend on mobile
Web browsers to deliver content — using HTML5 and other
browser based technologies. This is sometimes called a Web app.
Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, which are rap-
idly shifting as the respective technologies evolve. The challenge
is to decide which approach meets the immediate need at a sus-
tainable cost. Companies must also anticipate the best time to
switch (or whether to switch at all) and preserve as much IT invest-
ment as possible.
Background
Information portability has always been a driving force — often a dis-
ruptive one. Printing itself was such a shift. It challenged the ability
of centralised bodies to control information, putting it in the hands
of more people. From Gutenberg’s time to the rise of desktop pub-
lishing, the evolution of mass-produced print has served to make
information access cheaper and more accessible — more “democra-
tic,” to use the common refrain.
The Web itself followed the same path — decentralising information
consumption, and making it instantly available wherever there’s an
Internet connection. The restrictions on portability were addressed
in part by the rise of laptop PCs. With the rise of mobile phones and
their intersection with the Web, a truly portable information environ-
ment has become more feasible. Smartphones and tablets are
increasingly powerful computing devices, with full access to
cloud-based information and applications.
Although mobile publishing is relatively new,
it is arguably even more disruptive than
the Web has been. Information access is
not only immediate and ever-changing;
it’s performed on devices that users
seldom leave behind. Smartphones and
tablets have unique, built-in features,
such as telephony, geolocation, photo/
video creation, and on-site purchasing
capabilities, that regular PCs lack. They
reflect a significant personal and location-
based context for their users, which must be
understood by content publishers before there can be truly mean-
ingful interaction. A publishing strategy that views these devices as
merely portable browsers is bound to fail.
The Rise of the App
Both Apple iOS and Google Android devices have popularised the
native app as a means of delivering interactive content. These self-
contained applications often rely on Internet connections to deliver
current data — sometimes using HTML5 in a browser-like window —
but can also store information on the device itself, to be read offline.
It also uses the device’s built-in capabilities, like a camera or an
accelerometer, to create the overall user experience. It also relies
heavily on touch screens and the various hand gestures typical for
smartphones and tablets, creating a more immediate interface
between users and their information technology.
Other benefits of native apps include discoverability — the ability
of consumers to easily find and consume a company’s packaged
content on the App Store or Google Play. In addition to this mar-
keting and promotional benefit, apps also make it easier to mone-
tise content — if you don’t mind the healthy commissions charged
by Apple or Google.
To do all this, an app must be created in the “native” ecosystem
provided by Apple, Google, or Microsoft. In addition, screen size
and other hardware variations between smartphones and tablets
— or even between different tablet types — often requires multi-
ple versions of each app or require additional complexity to allow
an app to be “responsive.”
For traditional developers of games or productivity
software, the burden of supporting multiple
devices and environments is simply a cost of
doing business. So too is the need for
technical support in a rapidly changing
device landscape. However, for busi-
nesses and publishers who simply want
to make content available via mobile,
becoming a full-time app developer is
not an attractive prospect.
Businesses and publishers need not to
become software developers, per se, in
order to generate mobile app versions of their
B
usinesses and publications have been wrestling with “mobile publishing”
for a relatively short time. Apple’s iPhone was introduced in 2007, and
the iPad tablet in 2010. Other portable devices, like laptops, have been
around much longer. However, the modern smartphone/tablet phenomenon —
and the pressure created by the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend — have
created a sense of urgency that’s hard for businesses to ignore.
Are Mobile Apps Just a Fad?

2. content. Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite and Quark’s App Studio
are two examples of environments for creating viable smartphone
and tablet apps today. However, the question remains, with the
rapid proliferation of devices, is there a better long-term solution
for mobile content?
The Mobile Web
The likely alternative to native apps may well be the Web itself —
not in its traditional, desktop browser incarnation, but in a deliber-
ately mobile-optimised state. Rather than rely on specially-created
apps, content is delivered via the built-in browser on each device,
such as Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android. To provide the visual
display quality expected on a mobile device, the content would
utilise the latest Web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3.
The benefits of using a Web approach are obvious, especially if the
business or publisher already has a mature content management
strategy. Mobile browsers are pre-installed on most devices, and are
maintained by their respective developers. Correctly formatted con-
tent is device-agnostic; screen size is irrelevant, and users can adjust
things like type size to suit their individual needs. Among Web devel-
opers, the concept of “responsive design” — sites that can dynami-
cally adjust to any device or screen size — is becoming more popular.
Perhaps the most important reason to consider Web apps, however,
is that using a browser frees the business or publisher from much of
the IT and development burden of maintaining native apps.
Trend Leaders
Certain types of businesses are more likely than others to rely on
Web apps rather than native apps for publishing content on tablet
and smartphones. Information-driven entities like banking and
financial services companies, manufacturing, government agen-
cies, and daily news publishing organisations typically need a plat-
form that favours speed of content delivery over design or
device-driven considerations. For them, the mobile Web is clearly
a more effective path.
For such data-driven companies, native apps simply may not be able
to handle the sheer volume of information. This was seen in
Facebook’s recent move towards the mobile Web — which is
remarkably “app like” in appearance and functionality.
There are some practical reasons for preferring the Web approach
to native mobile apps. If a company already has a robust, secure,
online billing or subscription system, or if it already “owns” its
audience’s loyalty, then there is less need for the commerce or dis-
coverability offered by native apps. The Financial Times’ evolution
of its already strong Web presence into a Web app for smart-
phones and tablets is a good example.
In these companies’ move toward the Web, we see the evolution
of HTML5 development towards many of the things we value in
native apps: improvements in the user experience, thanks to the
responsive design trend, coupled with better use of context —
who the user is, where he or she is, what he or she is doing — in a
browser-centric environment.
Barriers to Migration
For many, the mobile Web is already the preferred path for content
publishing. Some are simply modifying their existing Web presence
to include mobile — with mixed success. However, for the time
being, there are still some significant issues that, for many, will mean
reliance on native apps in the near term.
Perhaps the greatest reason to stick with apps — for now — is that
smartphones and tablets are changing too rapidly for a browser-
based control environment to succeed. For businesses and publish-
ers that need the billing or discoverability benefits of digital
newsstands right now, the native app approach is a major incentive.
Another issue is the native functionality of mobile devices, includ-
ing touch screens, cameras and accelerometers. These are out-
side the norm for traditional Web development, and are not
universally or uniformly deployed. Even common interface tech-
niques, such as turning a “page” by swiping across the screen,
are also not standardised in the scrolling world of browsers. Web-
only development has simply not caught up with the rapidly
changing mobile user experience.
Part of that experience has been the ability of users to consume con-
tent and run programmes locally, on their own devices, without an
active Internet connection. This is a major barrier to browser-only
mobile publishing, even with dramatic increases in Wi-Fi and mobile
connectivity. Browser-based storage of local content is often limited
to 5–10MB; native apps can store more. For the time being, local
content needs will dictate whether a native app is needed. However,
as device capacity grows and operating system limits are relaxed,
this problem will diminish.
Security and e-commerce are more serious, albeit temporary barri-
ers to non-app publishing. Apps, proprietary by nature, have an
advantage over browsers, where vulnerabilities are an ongoing
problem. Major publishers have also complained that HTML5 does
not yet have an established financial transaction model that meets
the needs of all parties. Mobile commerce is progressing rapidly,
but many businesses and consumers are taking a conservative
adoption path.
Perhaps the greatest reason why browsers trail apps is the very
nature of the Web and its path to standardisation. HTML5, while
2 ©2013 Quark Software Inc. All rights reserved
For businesses and publishers who simply want to
make content available via mobile, becoming a full-time
app developer is not an attractive prospect.

3. essential to robust display of content, is still not a fully established
standard; version 5.0 probably won’t reach formal recommendation
status until 2014. The agendas of competing browser developers,
whose software is usually free, will ensure that standardisation
remains a slow process, with the specific needs of businesses and
publishers taking a back seat.
The Hybrid Approach
Eventually, the dominance of the proprietary app will decline for
most businesses and publishers. Using a common infrastructure is
always preferable to re-inventing new vehicles for content delivery.
HTML and XML are already at the heart of modern digital content —
even the most seemingly proprietary: ebooks. As browsers become
more capable of storing and handling complex local content, and as
the standards for security and commerce mature, businesses and
publishers will find it more cost-effective to develop Web apps.
This is not an absolute, either-or projection, however. For device-
specific activities (like games), apps will remain strong. Where infor-
mation is truly time-dependent and dynamic, the mobile Web will
dominate. There is an enormous middle ground between them,
requiring a hybrid approach. The stable, versatile “container” for
information, will probably consist of a mobile browser — with spe-
cific plugins in place of standalone apps.
For information-intensive businesses and publishers, the mobile
Web is already a primary “container” for delivering critical content.
As mobile devices proliferate and gain even greater acceptance, the
ability of a company to render and manage its content effectively
over multiple channels — including native apps, for the time being
— will be a successful part of the mobile revolution.
To be an effective solution for businesses and publishers, a mobile con-
tent rendering workflow must be a “hybrid” approach in many ways. It
must work with multiple authoring platforms, including Microsoft Word,
InDesign, QuarkXPress, and structured XML data. More importantly, it
must allow for both app and HTML5 output, thus providing a “future
proof” approach to rendering content for mobile users — thereby gain-
ing the wider benefits of a true multi-channel environment.
3 ©2013 Quark Software Inc. All rights reserved
App Studio is the next generation digital publishing solution that uses
HTML5 to push the bounds of user experience without the high cost
and effort associated with custom app development. By combining the
market-leading HTML5 technology from the recent acquisition of
PressRun with Quark’s existing digital publishing technology, App
Studio is the only digital publishing solution that allows users to create
branded content apps using QuarkXPress, InDesign, HTML5, and XML.
Through a managed cloud environment, designers, authors, and
extended teams are able to collaborate to create rich, interactive
content that can be delivered across multiple platforms and devices.
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About
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About
Shaun Barriball
Shaun Barriball is the
Vice President of
Mobile Products for
Quark Software Inc.
With over 10 years in
the mobile industry he
has experienced across
all aspects of the
mobile content value
chain — from working
with operators to develop their service delivery platforms to
delivering content to these platforms as on-portal services. This
experience has given Shaun a broad view of the mobile market,
including the pitfalls, the challenges, and the risks. In 2005
Shaun founded Mobile IQ, provider of PressRun, the award-
winning tablet publishing platform, which was acquired by
Quark in 2012. In 2010 he was named in the Global Telecoms
“40 under 40.” Reach Shaun at sbarriball@quark.com.