Stand-alone mobile app versus Internet Browser apps

By Mikala Lindhardt

            I’m going to be honest here and say I didn’t even know this could be a debate. Before research, I didn’t even know there was a huge difference in stand-alone mobile apps versus internet browser apps. Doesn’t it provide and offer the same things? Well not necessarily.

            A blog post written by Rand Fishkin really helped me understand the difference.  I hope you will find it just as useful as I did. As you can see from the photo below, there are pros and cons to both the mobile apps and mobile internet browsers. Mobile internet browsers are getting a lot of traffic but mobile apps are ultimately taking over the world.

Perhaps a direct quote can help you understand what I mean when I say internet browsers are getting a lot of traffic. Fishkin said, “there's a lot less time spent in the mobile web, meaning on mobile websites on a mobile device, than there is in the world of apps — far, far less time spent. But weirdly, and this is very strange but confirmed by several different sources, there's more traffic overall, meaning more unique people making more different visits, which makes a little bit of sense when you think about how those things are done.”

I’m not saying one is better than the other, but mobile apps now have the capability to enter data or do work without being online the whole time. Now, keep in mind applications need to be downloaded, but there is some work that can be done offline. This is a great option if you are not going to be connected to wifi some of the time and still have work to do.

An article written by computer world in December said, “a great way for technology pundits to attract attention is to predict the death of a popular technology.” It is hard to predict what will be the next big thing or what consumers will want a lot of the time, but one thing is for sure and that is consumes want mobile access. That is apparent with the mobile age we are currently living in. You can see that with shopping apps for people with Wish, HOME, Amazon, Etsy, Flipp, etc. Mobile apps are set up to remember passwords and ‘likes’ so they are user friendly and accessible.

Or do we even care if it’s an app or a mobile web? As Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile wrote, “we enter social apps for discovery and then access the mobile Web while still in-app. It is a mistake to conflate time spent on the mobile Web with time spent in a traditional browser.”

There you go. Here are your pros and cons of each and why one would be better than another. Now make your own predictions with what is going to happen. What do you prefer? Does it depend? Feel free to comment below. I would love to know your thoughts.