This morning Stephan Haux of Germany’s Netbiscuits gave a presentation on the company’s JavaScript platform for mobile web experiences, and some lessons they’ve learned along the way.
A key point he made was that with new JavaScript platforms and the power of HTML5, mobile web experiences can begin to rival native app experiences in terms of functionality and design. In addition, these platforms allow you to scale your investment against a much greater variety of devices than you might if you’re developing traditional apps.
That said, this does not actually mean that apps are rendered moot by advanced JavaScript frameworks. There will always be a multitude of specific use cases that still require an app to express the advanced UI requirements of many projects. But for “normal website” stuff, it is becoming increasingly possible to create very rich interactive mobile experiences that can live within your device browser.
There’s an exciting implication in that for brands. Driving to a web location is much more frictionless than having your audience download and install an app. So for simple low-budget straightforward campaigns where the value exchange with consumers is not hefty enough for a large proportion of them to download an app, you can deliver your message more rapidly and instantly, while simultaneously scaling across a wider range of devices and still delivering a rich interactive experience.