As the growth of the mobile device explodes with almost half of all Americans owning a Smartphone and 57% of those individuals using mobile devices as their primary source of internet access businesses have to consider this massive internet opportunity.

This is great news for all of us out there that rely on our websites to generate leads, sell our products or simply give our customers information about our company.

The bad news… is that when consumers are using their tiny little devices they often times have difficulty navigating or even seeing our full websites.

Web developers have been franticly trying to find solutions to the 79% increase in these devices in 2010 alone. They have found two solutions; build mobile device applications (apps) and now mobile websites using HTML5.

The question is whether one should pursue the road towards the mobile app or the mobile website.

This debate has been going on since the launch of the mobile device some years ago and in our opinion has begun to lean towards one side.

Let me begin by showing you the broad differences between the two:

This diagram highlights the areas that present the most concern when comparing Mobile Apps and Mobile Web. Highlight some details.

1. Development Cost – This can vary tremendously on the basis of how elaborate and advanced you want your app or Mobile site to perform. A very basic, let me reiterate very basic, App with extremely low functionality will run you in the ball park of $30,000. A basic five page mobile website will only cost you roughly $3,000.
2. Maintenance – When considering which mobile route to go you must consider what you are going to have to go through when you need to update or change something about your mobile platform. When you need to change, no matter how small such as updating a phone number or changing some text, with a mobile app this becomes very costly and time consuming.

With a mobile app you would have to rewrite the code in the program, test and then resubmit your app to the app store. With a mobile site and HTML5 all you would need to do is go to your content management system (CMS) and simple make the change. It would then be updated on your mobile site instantly and with virtually no cost.

3. User experience – You want to consider how your users are experiencing your brand through the usage of your website. With the use of mobile apps the user experience is very good considering that the application runs quickly on the device’s hard drive and that it utilizes all the functionality of the device itself.

Now with the development and advancement of HTML5 the same is true. The mobile site is able to use all of the functionality of the device in order to do things such a geo-tracking and utilizing RFID technology. With the advancement of 4g networks that support the device’s internet access, the speed at which the device accesses data is also increasing rapidly.

4. Mobile Device Compatibility – When going mobile, compatibility has been a big issue. With building a mobile app you have to build it specifically build it for a certain type of mobile operating system. You simply cannot build an app for the iPhone and then copy it over to Android and vice versa. And many times when you build an app specifically for the Android it may not even work on all the different type of Android systems. This can become very complicated, time consuming and costly to make sure all the mobile users are able to download and use your mobile app.

   With mobile web, this is not the case. Using HTML5, you can build websites and web apps that allow for a great user experience with anyone using a Smartphone with a web browser. The content is built once allowing for quick builds, saving time and money.

5. Performance – When moving into the mobile realm you must consider performance. Performance is part of the equation when considering user experience which translates directly into whether or not your lead is going to stay on your site long enough to convert. With mobile apps performance is quite good. There is little load time since the application is running off the mobile device’s hard drive and the apps are able to interact with the device giving the users most out of their experience.

When considering mobile devices again, I have to reiterate how the development of HTML5 and its advancement has begun to change the game dramatically. As it closes in on the predicted date of completion, HTML5 has enabled developers to create websites and web apps that have the ability to interact with the mobile devices. This will allow for greater web user experiences by allowing for the site to communicate with the device thus giving the user a greater experience.

There is one more thing that I have to mention that the mobile web developers do not have to consider. This is the constant worry of Mobile app store rejections. When a developer finishes an app they have to submit the app to the app store whether it is the Android app store on the iPhone app store. These app stores then have to preview the app and decide if they are willing to distribute the app. With app store such as Apple’s they are known to reject a large percentage of apps if they do not fit their qualifications.

So is the mobile app dying? It’s hard to say but one thing is for sure, the mobile web via HTML5 is on the rise. With increased performance and functionality, including low maintenance and costs combined with the roughly 154 million Americans using mobile devices to access the internet you don’t want to be the only business out there without a mobile presence.