In the last 3 years, the number of smartphone users has grown by 180%, and until 2018 it will grow another 130%, reaching 2.56 billion people in the world. With the growth of mobile users, being present in the mobile world isn’t just an option, but an obligation.
Where do I begin?
Is it better to build a responsive site or a mobile app? It’s a tough choice since both have advantages and disadvantages that must be taken in consideration.
Which platform should I support?
To answer this question, it’s fundamental to first identify what kind of product or service the company is commercializing and which strategy of acquisition and customer retention is needed.
Before you build an app or adapt your website, try to define what kind of result you wish to accomplish with this mobile strategy.
If you wish to raise the sales of a product or service, like food ordering, flowers sale, selling tickets or booking a restaurant table, you don’t need a mobile app. For companies where the visibility in search engines is more and more important in its growth, building a responsive website is the best path to follow.
For a delivery company, for example, it doesn’t make much sense to create its own app. In this case, it’s better to create a responsive website, and attach your establishment to Google Places, signing partnerships with food delivery apps already in the market. The effort to build, maintain and propagate an app, with the only goal to accomplish a food delivery must not be considered as a mobile strategy.
However, if your company wishes to create or adapt a business opening new opportunities, providing a service that will strengthen your brand, build customer loyalty, along with maintaining an updated and qualified lead, probably your solution will be to develop an app.
A mobile app will provide users with unique feature and speed that cannot be reached with a responsive website. Mobile apps use all the potential of the device and the native mobile ecosystem.
It’s important to remember that when you choose to develop a mobile app, you must have in mind the need to create a unique experience that creates value to the app. Again, if you wish to make an app merely institutional, that’s not the right path. Your app must aggregate value to the user.
Once you find out which results you expect, it’s time to choose which platform to support. To answer that question it’s important to know the profile of your audience and what is your company’s budget on building this mobile strategy.
If you have no financial restrictions, you should consider to support both iOS and Android. Now, if you want to start slowly, consider where you’re launching your app. Globally, Android users are 84% of the total users, but in North America, for example, it’s close to be tied between to 2 biggest platforms.
At the end of the day, when you decide to make an app, think of it from the perspective of a user, see if you will benefit from it, if you’d leave it installed on your phone or you would delete it on your first attempt.