Przemysław Pala
Andrzej Puczyk
Do we use mobile applications that often?
There’s no doubt that mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily routine. More facts on this you can find in our article “3 proofs the mobile app market is doing great”. But what actually makes them better than mobile websites? According to the latest statistics, 90% of the time on mobile is spent on apps. Surprised? Mobile apps have already taken the lead and we prepared 7 arguments, which will convince you even more that it’s true.
The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the pie chart is the time spent in apps, but let’s focus on the details. We spend 3 hours 40 minutes on mobile daily. How do we actually divide this time? Only 10% of it goes to browsers. The main spheres we tend to use most are Facebook, Gaming and Entertainment. Later in this article, we propose 7 reasons as the basic comparison, which we hope you’ll all find true and convincing. Moreover, have you ever asked yourself a question, why does owning a mobile app makes a difference?
Continue reading and learn more about the advantages they could deliver to your business.
Why are mobile apps more powerful than web mobile or web apps?
Online businesses have been trying to offer a mobile-app experience on desktops and websites for years now. Why invest in a mobile app when you can have a website that is already mobile friendly?
Well let’s take a look at Web-mobile vs Mobile Apps from the customer’s perspective:
- Your customer opens their web browser.
- Customer googles the product or service they are interested in. They scroll through dozens of results including your competitors.
- They find your website and open it.
- They find the product they are interested in and decide to buy.
- They have to create an account and input all of their personal and payment information.
- They finally check out and make their payment.
God forbid at any point they get distracted and exit your website. They’ll have to start all over again and chances are they might go to a competitor instead.
Now let’s look at the mobile app experience:
- The customer has your mobile app on their phone home page. Their account and payment info is already saved permanently.
- They find what they’re looking for and purchase it with just one click.
- If they exit the app before finishing the purchase, you can simply remind them with a push notification.
It’s a big difference, isn’t it? While your website can be mobile-friendly, it will never give you and your customers the advantages and power of a real mobile app.
It is vital to mention what’s the basic difference between mobile apps and the mobile web. First, that comes to mind are functionalities and personalisation available on a wider scale in the case of mobile apps. Users can set their own personalizations due to their interests, usage behaviour or location. That mostly distinguishes the apps from mobile websites, which description could be uncut to the fact that they are simply websites adjusted to the size of the mobile device’s screen.
App power
After the research on our own, we deliver to you the compressed list of reasons why mobile apps are better than mobile websites. Take a look at the graph below, and observe how users list their preferences in favour of mobile apps:
It’s vital to mention that one could double and triple the possible pros and cons of one side, but these 7 elements could serve as a strong base in favour of mobile apps:
- Better and more dedicated personalization
Based on the preferences, mobile apps are about delivering dedicated and personalized communication to the customer, giving him new possibilities, useful features and convenient solutions.
- Possibility to use mobile device’s features
It’s a strong differentiation when it comes to mobile device’s features, such as camera, GPS, phone calls, contacts list, notes and many others, which can make your work more efficient.
- Mobile notifications to stay in touch with the customer
There are several types of mobile notifications, like push notifications and in-app ones. Both are a very desired solution, which enables a company or a brand to stay in constant contact with the customer and a non-intrusive manner. - Offline work can still be a thing
It would be fair to mention that this difference is probably the most fundamental among others. While it’s impossible for websites to work offline, mobile apps often give such possibility at least to some level and offer basic functionalities without the connection to the internet. - A huge stream of conversion
Mobile apps can serve as a customer conversion booster, which later could result in more deals for one’s business. Having said that, it’s important to know about the power mobile apps have in case of acquiring a mobile audience and converting it to the conversion funnel. - New branding – completely new user experience
Having the liberty of offering a new user experience to customers can be used as a strong advantage. A fresh look and a brand new appearance is sometimes a risky move, but the careful implementation could bring more clients and raise their interest. - Timesaving solution
It’s not a mystery that mobile apps can be a faster solution than websites. It refers to well-designed apps, which gather their data internally on mobile devices. That enables them to work faster than websites that generally use web servers.
The era of mobile apps is here
It’s without question that mobile apps changed the way we use online channels for good. Having a strong, well-designed app can give a significant advantage to the owner and, on the other side, deliver many convenient solutions to the customer.
The era of mobile apps, even though it has been present already for years, still shows some brand new solutions, which change everyday’s lives. We hope that this article will be of any use to you. If you want to know more about the mobile world – Check our other articles and learn more about the Top 5 Mobile Banking Apps In The World.
In case you liked our article, take a look at some of the other pieces we wrote!
