I want to discuss an issue that we will be facing soon, and that many people launching web applications are probably facing: shall I create a native app?

For some products, if you develop a game, or anything that relies on a large data, native apps are a no-brainer. But when your service is originally web based, like Minilogs, why would you create a native app over a mobile web version of your service? Apps are very expensive to develop and maintain. Besides, with the recent rise of Android, if you are crafting a product destined to a large audience, you then have to develop an iPhone app, an iPad app, an Android app, and maybe even an Android tablet app. This is way too much for an early stage start-up.

I personally see all this app business as a regression, from a pure usability standpoint. It, for example, hinders linking possibilities: you click on a link, it opens the browser, on another one, it opens the YouTube app. It’s annoying and results in poor UX.

If you look at what happened on desktops over the last 10 years, the number of programs we use has been drastically reduced as they have often been replaced by web based applications. Native apps seem anachronic in this broader context of cloud computing and mass linking.

Will the same evolution happen for mobiles? Will we rely less and less on native apps. Will, in a near future, sites like Facebook or YouTube be accessed solely via mobile browsers, or will the app business still flourish?

The current situation of the native apps market is obviously linked to a state of technology. Mobile broadband is still slow, and having as much data as possible already on your mobile device is a sure way to increase speed. Besides, mobile web browsers are not yet able to handle code perfectly.

These technical impediments will however soon be over, 3G is available in most crowded places over the world, 4G will soon be there and mobile browsers are evolving quite quickly.

But technical impediments are not the only aspect driving the app business (is it even the main one?). Native apps are very lucrative for the ones controlling the app platforms. Why would they want to switch to a web based model in which they would lose control and profit. Especially control freak Apple who is significantly weaker than Google when it comes to web based products.

Apple’s will to fight mobile web over native apps is already clear. They, for example, deactivated the possibility to auto-play videos on their mobile devices, and even though they pretend it’s to limit data consumption and protect customers, it seems quite clear that they are trying to limit the number of web based possibilities. And I am not even talking about Flash support.

But it’s not the only side of the story. Native apps would probably not last long if they were only beneficiary to those controlling the platforms. They also provide, for those who publish them, an excellent opportunity to be seen. As far as my understanding goes, many apps are actually written in HTML5 and are more or less the equivalent of a shortcut to a mobile website. App platforms are a great marketing tool and that’s why everybody seems happy to play the game.

We, at Minilogs, are very tempted to go full web, but are scared of going full retard. What do you think? Shall we focus our efforts on building a nice responsive web app, or shall we play the game of native apps as soon as possible?