Web apps vs. Mobile apps - it's a NO brainer

Someone asked me yesterday what it would take to extend an existing Web app/service to a mobile device vs. building a mobile app.

So I thought about it and here's some ideas...

Imagine this scenario - you have an existing web service that you would like to extend to mobile, and you need to ensure that your customers data is kept private. What would it require using 5o9’s solution?

• On the server
• Download and install mod_mobile - 44k (to put this in perspective this post is bigger than that)
• Add the following line to your config file: LoadModule mod_mobile Modules/mod_mobile.so
• Reboot the server
• Elapsed time - 1 minute or less
• On the mobile client
• Download and install 5o9 Mobile app
• Elapsed time - 1 minute or less
• Actual programming work
• Design your mobile pages - make sure the home page is dynamic (a script)
• Choose your contextual menus - each requires a single line of code - something like this <menuitem text="Pay for Dinner" action=http://www.visa.com>
• Elapsed time - 2 weeks

That’s it. If you didn’t need encryption scratch the “on the server” part. Save yourself a minute.

Compare the above with building a Mobile app for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone and Android. Here’s some of the question(s) that you need to answer...

• How long would it take to build and design a mobile app that works on WM, BB, iPhone and Android - each app will have a minimum of three screens and multiple menus?

Bonus question…

• How long would it take to integrate these apps into your back end web services?

And if you’re up for it…

• How long would it take to revise each of the apps you’ve built to accept new services?

Remember - there are 4 operating systems, multiple revs of each operating system, 4 different programming languages and multiple form factors.

Hint - it will take you longer to find the programmers to code your solution than it will to ship it using 5o9's solution.