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Upload your website, download a native app. What is wrong with this picture? If you can build your app as a web app and don't require hardware access then I'd

Upload your website, download a native app. What is wrong with this picture? If you can build your app as a web app and don't require hardware access then I'd think twice whether a native app is required.

adolph 15y ago
"Native app" could be a critical bit for marketing or payment processing.
pxlpshr 15y ago
Required? No. But there are benefits to being available on said platforms such as free distribution and eye balls. But there are also drawbacks, more specifically with Apple, if you have to spend a lot of time in the black hole review process.
dpcan 15y ago
It's about being found in the app stores. That's where people look for stuff on their phones, that's where you need to come up if you have something you want on someone's phone. Of course there is a lot of down-side to this, but it is what it is. I wish the App Stores, particularly the Android Market, would create a much more elaborate system of categories allowing people to narrow their browsing down to exactly what they want, then it wouldn't matter so much if there was a lot of useless crap in the app stores, because we would never see it.
- rhizome 15y ago
  This brings up an interesting point: is there anecdata regarding appstore presence being a gateway/entry-point for a website? That is, first the app, then the website?
teej 15y ago
HTML+CSS+JS certainly implies a website, but it doesnt have to be. We built a prototype mobile game in two weeks using PhoneGap and we were able to deploy to Android effortlessly. The visibility of the app store gave us (zero marketing, free app) brought in 2k downloads in two days. That kind of free distribution is hard to replicate on the open web.
jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
There are plenty of good reasons to write apps this way, not the least of which being access to the app store. (Unless you've figured out a way to charge $1.99 for access to a mobile web site, in which case, God bless.)
- bmelton 15y ago
  There used to be an HTML app store. I can't find it now, as I don't remember the name, but that existed. It's also pretty easy to just implement a registration fee, especially now with Stripe out in the wild. If you're really looking to limit access though, you could probably use something like gumroad to get it off the ground.
Lucent 15y ago
That's what I've been saying for years, until I was dragged into the Apple store by a friend and, to kill time, tried my web app on an iPad. It worked pretty well. An intrigued 10-year-old or so girl across the aisle asked, "What app is that?" "It's not an app but a site and you can see it at [redacted].com." She was turned off by the time I said "site" and tuned me out. After that incident, I resolved to take my web app to the various app stores and am working on that with PhoneGap now.
jberryman 15y ago
PhoneGap gives you access to much of the phone's hardware in a cross-platform compatible way: http://docs.phonegap.com/ http://docs.phonegap.com/
smackfu 15y ago
Well, one advantage of the app store is that you can charge for your app.

adolph 15y ago

"Native app" could be a critical bit for marketing or payment processing.

pxlpshr 15y ago

Required? No. But there are benefits to being available on said platforms such as free distribution and eye balls. But there are also drawbacks, more specifically with Apple, if you have to spend a lot of time in the black hole review process.

dpcan 15y ago

It's about being found in the app stores. That's where people look for stuff on their phones, that's where you need to come up if you have something you want on someone's phone. Of course there is a lot of down-side to this, but it is what it is. I wish the App Stores, particularly the Android Market, would create a much more elaborate system of categories allowing people to narrow their browsing down to exactly what they want, then it wouldn't matter so much if there was a lot of useless crap in the app stores, because we would never see it.

rhizome 15y ago
This brings up an interesting point: is there anecdata regarding appstore presence being a gateway/entry-point for a website? That is, first the app, then the website?

teej 15y ago

HTML+CSS+JS certainly implies a website, but it doesnt have to be. We built a prototype mobile game in two weeks using PhoneGap and we were able to deploy to Android effortlessly. The visibility of the app store gave us (zero marketing, free app) brought in 2k downloads in two days. That kind of free distribution is hard to replicate on the open web.

jeffreymcmanus 15y ago

There are plenty of good reasons to write apps this way, not the least of which being access to the app store. (Unless you've figured out a way to charge $1.99 for access to a mobile web site, in which case, God bless.)

bmelton 15y ago
There used to be an HTML app store. I can't find it now, as I don't remember the name, but that existed. It's also pretty easy to just implement a registration fee, especially now with Stripe out in the wild. If you're really looking to limit access though, you could probably use something like gumroad to get it off the ground.

Lucent 15y ago

That's what I've been saying for years, until I was dragged into the Apple store by a friend and, to kill time, tried my web app on an iPad. It worked pretty well. An intrigued 10-year-old or so girl across the aisle asked, "What app is that?" "It's not an app but a site and you can see it at [redacted].com." She was turned off by the time I said "site" and tuned me out. After that incident, I resolved to take my web app to the various app stores and am working on that with PhoneGap now.

jberryman 15y ago

PhoneGap gives you access to much of the phone's hardware in a cross-platform compatible way: http://docs.phonegap.com/ http://docs.phonegap.com/

smackfu 15y ago

Well, one advantage of the app store is that you can charge for your app.