A Cheaper and More Efficient Way To Reach Mobile Consumers

It’s no secret that standard websites accessed through mobile phones just don’t cut it when it comes to reaching the huge market that is the mobile-consumer revolution. Text runs off screen, buttons are too small and flash doesn’t load. Consumers become frustrated and move onto a competitor.

One approach for businesses wanting to reach mobile customers on their mobile is to develop an ‘App’. That little piece of software that can be downloaded from an app store as a little icon sitting on the consumers home screen is the best way to present content to customers that is easily accessible and quickly understood. Right?

Wrong. Here’s why.
There are four main operating systems – otherwise known as platforms – in use on mobile phones today. iOS (Apple’s iPhone), Blackberry, Android (Google’s offering used on most Samsung devices) and Windows. When an app is created, it needs to be developed for at least the main platforms. Mobile application development is costly, not just in the original development but also when updating and maintaining each application. It is time consuming and inefficient.

There is another way. This other way allows the customer to access information about a business on any platform without significant investment in developing a mobile app. Better yet, the consumer can access the information immediately from their iPhone without having to go to the application store and download an app; a hurdle that can sometimes mean the difference between a customer engaging with a business and not.

This other way is creating a mobile website or mobile application development in such a way that it will work across all operating systems and platforms. Whenever the mobile website is accessed, it will sense which platform and type of device is accessing it and change the layout of the website to suit the consumer. The application can detect the screen size and render the appropriate version of the application based on the device the user is currently using. This is done using new technologies like HTML5. HTML5 is compatible on any browser regardless of the operating system or device used to access it. When customers access the business’s website on their mobile, they will be redirected to the mobile website.

For instance, if the website is viewed from a laptop, it will come up in a 1024×768 resolution format with small buttons suited for using a mouse. If the website is viewed from a mobile phone, it will show up in a smaller resolution and with big buttons for big fingers. Android websites show Android-specific commands and iPhone websites utilise the iPhone-specific functions. Each web format is optimised for the platform it is being used on.

The only downside to using HTML for an optimised website instead of developing an Application is that a business will not be in the app store should that be where consumers are searching for a product. The relevance of this downside is dependent on the application you are developing. If an application is built for consumers on the mass market to buy, then it may be a problem. However, if an app is specific to a business and purely designed to provide better access to information for customers, this is not an issue. It is better to use optimised websites rather than invest large amounts of effort and money into developing an application. Any professional mobile application development company such as Complete Cloud will be able to assess your needs and provide you advice on what is right for your business.