Web or Native? Smart choices for smartphone apps

Slides from a talk by Tim Riley and Michael Honey at Web Directions South, October 13 2011. We answer the question “web or native?” from business, product design and development perspectives. We cover the current state of web technology on modern devices and compare it to what’s available through native development platforms. We look at web, native and hybrid strategies successfully employed by Australian and international businesses, and share our own stories as mobile and web developers. Finally, we offer practical guidance on picking a strategy for web or native development that best suits your needs — as either a developer or a client.

Transcript

1. HELLO. Thursday, 13 October 11
2. WE ARE TIM AND MICHAEL @TIMRILEY @MICHAELHONEY Thursday, 13 October 11
3. TWO OF FIVE Thursday, 13 October 11
4. WE BUILD THINGS SOME OF WHICH ARE GOOD Thursday, 13 October 11
5. Thursday, 13 October 11
6. Thursday, 13 October 11
7. Thursday, 13 October 11
8. ? Thursday, 13 October 11
9. WATER COFFEE Thursday, 13 October 11
10. SO: WEB OR NATIVE? TELL ME WHAT TO DO PLEASE Thursday, 13 October 11
11. IT DEPENDS. YOU KIND OF KNEW THAT ALREADY Thursday, 13 October 11
12. WEB FOR CONTENT Thursday, 13 October 11
13. WEB FOR FAMILIARITY Thursday, 13 October 11
14. WEB FOR UPDATES Thursday, 13 October 11
15. WEB FOR ACCESSIBILITY Thursday, 13 October 11
16. NATIVE FOR INTERFACE Thursday, 13 October 11
17. NATIVE FOR PERFORMANCE Thursday, 13 October 11
18. NATIVE FOR THE NEW HOTNESS Thursday, 13 October 11
19. NATIVE FOR GETTING PAID Thursday, 13 October 11
20. APP STORES ARE GREAT Thursday, 13 October 11
21. “Apple’s walled garden is the sleek toyshop that’s already in your customer’s pocket...” MATT LEGEND GEMMELL Thursday, 13 October 11
22. “I can imagine the Amazon tablet mostly being a fancy, color Kindle... a magical, colorful window through which you can give money to Amazon.” JON SIRACUSA Thursday, 13 October 11
23. “Android? No-one pays.” MARCO ARMENT Thursday, 13 October 11
24. APP STORES ARE EVIL Thursday, 13 October 11
25. 30% Thursday, 13 October 11
26. OPAQUE & SLOW APPROVAL PROCESS Thursday, 13 October 11
27. Thursday, 13 October 11
28. ARBITRARY RULES FOR INCLUSION Thursday, 13 October 11
29. AMAZON: LOSS OF PRICE CONTROL, REWRITING DESCRIPTIONS Thursday, 13 October 11
30. BUT IT’S NOT JUST ONE OR THE OTHER Thursday, 13 October 11
31. A DEPLOYMENT GRADIENT WEB SITES WEB APPS NATIVE APPS FUNCTIONALITY PERFORMANCE DEVICE SPECIFICITY, GOOD AND BAD FRAGMENTATION OF EFFORT TO COVER ENTIRE MARKET Thursday, 13 October 11
32. DO YOU REALLY NEED AN APP? Thursday, 13 October 11
33. RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN Thursday, 13 October 11
34. Thursday, 13 October 11
35. @media screen and (max-device-width: 320px) { /* Target small screens here */ } Thursday, 13 October 11
36. Thursday, 13 October 11
37. WEB “APPS” Thursday, 13 October 11
38. CANVAS, VIDEO & AUDIO, GEOLOCATION ORIENTATION, CSS3 TRANSITIONS ANIMATION, 2D AND 3D TRANSFORMS HARDWARE ACCELERATION, LOCAL STORAGE OFFLINE SUPPORT, SVG, HISTORY API TOUCH EVENTS, WEB WORKERS FAST JAVASCRIPT ENGINES Thursday, 13 October 11
39. Thursday, 13 October 11
40. Thursday, 13 October 11
41. THING INSIDE A THING Thursday, 13 October 11
42. http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/22/apps-vs-the-web/ Thursday, 13 October 11
43. “ADD TO HOME SCREEN” Thursday, 13 October 11
44. DOES IT HELP? Thursday, 13 October 11
45. WRAPPERS Thursday, 13 October 11
46. Thursday, 13 October 11
47. iOS ANDROID WINDOWS 7 BLACKBERRY WEB OS SYMBIAN Thursday, 13 October 11
48. ACCELEROMETER CAMERA COMPASS CONTACTS FILE GEOLOCATION MEDIA NETWORK NOTIFICATIONS STORAGE Thursday, 13 October 11
49. Thursday, 13 October 11
50. MOBILE APP & UI HELPERS Thursday, 13 October 11
51. Thursday, 13 October 11
52. Thursday, 13 October 11
53. Thursday, 13 October 11
54. Thursday, 13 October 11
55. AND MANY MORE KENDO UI, JO, THE M PROJECT JAVASCRIPT FRAMEWORKS Thursday, 13 October 11
56. BEWARE THE UNCANNY VALLEY Thursday, 13 October 11
57. UI TRADE-OFFS Thursday, 13 October 11
58. BESPOKE WRAPPERS Thursday, 13 October 11
59. Thursday, 13 October 11
60. Thursday, 13 October 11
61. Thursday, 13 October 11
62. Thursday, 13 October 11
63. BRIDGES Thursday, 13 October 11
64. DEPENDENCY DANGER Thursday, 13 October 11
65. NATIVE APPS Thursday, 13 October 11
66. REAL-LIFE DRAMA Thursday, 13 October 11
67. DECAF SUCKS Thursday, 13 October 11
68. Thursday, 13 October 11
69. Thursday, 13 October 11
70. Thursday, 13 October 11
71. Thursday, 13 October 11
72. BEFORE AFTER 9.55 3.25 Decaf Sucks reviews per day, 40 days either side of native app release Thursday, 13 October 11
73. AMAZON KINDLE Thursday, 13 October 11
74. HARDWARE KINDLE NATIVE DEVICE APPS KINDLE CLOUD READER LATE 2007 EARLY 2010 AUGUST 2011 Thursday, 13 October 11
75. “The feeling at Amazon is that the future is web apps, but that there’s a... trough we have to get through where native apps have a place.” AMAZON iOS DEVELOPER Thursday, 13 October 11
76. BOOKI.SH Thursday, 13 October 11
77. Thursday, 13 October 11
78. Thursday, 13 October 11
79. Thursday, 13 October 11
80. “We chose HTML5 for Booki.sh because books are part of the web.” JOSEPH PEARSON Thursday, 13 October 11
81. LINKABLE, SHARABLE Thursday, 13 October 11
82. SO: WHAT TO DO? Thursday, 13 October 11
83. IN THE PERFECT WORLD, DO EVERYTHING SINCE YOU HAVE INFINITE TIME AND MONEY Thursday, 13 October 11
84. MVP MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT MOST VALUABLE PRODUCT MVP Thursday, 13 October 11
85. EMBRACE AMBIGUITY THERE ARE NO EASY CHOICES. BUT HERE ARE SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER: Thursday, 13 October 11
86. WHO’S IMPORTANT? Thursday, 13 October 11
87. THOSE WHO BUILD IT I’M {AFRAID OF / EXCITED BY} NEW THINGS I WANT IT TO BE EASY TO BUILD I HAVE A PHILOSOPHICAL/AESTHETIC OBJECTION I’D LIKE TO GET PAID TO LEARN THIS I WANT TO USE THE NEW HOTNESS I WANT TO IMPRESS MY PEERS Thursday, 13 October 11
88. THOSE WHO BUILD IT THOSE WHO PAY FOR IT BUILD IT FAST MAKE IT CHEAP GET RETURN ON INVESTMENT CEO NEEDS AN APP TO SHOW OFF THEIR NEW TOY Thursday, 13 October 11
89. THOSE WHO USE IT THOSE WHO BUILD IT THOSE WHO PAY FOR IT I JUST WANT IT TO WORK WELL Thursday, 13 October 11
90. A DEEPER KIND OF FUNCTIONALITY Thursday, 13 October 11
91. “How can I make it so that every single person, no matter what device, no matter what browser, can accomplish their task?” JEREMY KEITH, THE WEB AHEAD # 3 Thursday, 13 October 11
92. WHERE ARE YOUR DATA? ON THE WEB? YOU’RE ALREADY DOING IT Thursday, 13 October 11
93. HOW WILL THIS BE PAID FOR? Thursday, 13 October 11
94. BUYING THE APP IN-APP PURCHASES SUBSCRIPTIONS ADVERTISING Thursday, 13 October 11
95. FIVE FACTS: Thursday, 13 October 11
96. 1. INNOVATION CREATES FRAGMENTATION Thursday, 13 October 11
97. 2. FACTS HAVE HALF-LIVES Thursday, 13 October 11
98. HP RELEASES TOUCHPAD HP DROPS TOUCHPAD GOOGLE BUYS MOTOROLA RIM STOCK HITS FIVE YEAR LOW NOKIA SHIPS ABANDONED MEEGO PHONE HP SACKS CEO, REFLOATS TOUCHPAD NOKIA ANNOUNCES 2,500 LAYOFFS WINDOWS 8/METRO ANNOUNCED AMAZON ANNOUNCES KINDLE FIRE AMAZON ANNOUNCES SILK ADOBE BUYS PHONEGAP FACEBOOK RELEASES CREDITS, DISABLED IN iOS IOS 5 RELEASED, INSTAPAPER STILL IN REVIEW BLACKBERRY MESSAGING INEXPLICABLY FAILS TOMORROW: IPHONE 4S (ALL SINCE TIM AND MICHAEL STARTED WRITING THIS TALK) Thursday, 13 October 11
99. 3.PLATFORMS EVAPORATE BUT SOME LAST LONGER THAN OTHERS Thursday, 13 October 11
100. 4. CHOICE OF TECH MATTERS BUT IT’S JUST A SMALL PART OF THE WHOLE STORY Thursday, 13 October 11
101. HAVE AN IDEA DEFINE IT PROPERLY CONFIRM THAT PEOPLE WANT IT THINK ABOUT THE DATA STRUCTURES DESIGN THE INTERACTIONS DESIGN THE INTERFACE WRITE FRONTEND CODE BUILD THE BACKEND FIND A WAY TO MONETISE IT BRING IT TO MARKET Thursday, 13 October 11
102. 5. LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE IS THE EASIEST PART OF BUILDING A GREAT APP Thursday, 13 October 11
103. DON’T BE AFRAID OF LEARNING NEW SKILLS Thursday, 13 October 11
104. (AND YOU’LL HAVE TO DO IT ANYWAY) Thursday, 13 October 11
105. HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT ACCESSIBILITY JS FRAMEWORKS RESPONSIVE DESIGN PHP/RUBY/WHATEVER MOBILE DEVICES RSS XML WEB STANDARDS Thursday, 13 October 11
106. ABANDON DOGMA. BUILD THE BEST THING. Thursday, 13 October 11
107. WHICH IS WHY WE’RE ALL HERE Thursday, 13 October 11
108. THANKS. Thursday, 13 October 11