Neil wrote:
> I still believe that native apps, no matter how well developed, are
> inaccessible as a fundamental concept for use with random visitors.
> While demonstrating Info-Point we still see many Blackberries out
> there (last week they were very popular you know) and what about any
> new OS (or OS version) that becomes popular in the next nanosecond?
> Backward compatibility of new apps is to be expected, but forward
> compatibility?
Predicting forward-compatibility is always going to be tricky. After
all, it wasn't *that* long ago when museum websites were full of games
and interactives that were written in Flash, which of course now is
completely incompatible with most smartphones and tablets and even many
standard desktop browsers (Safari on Mac ships without Flash by
default).*
On the other hand I think I'm right in saying that apps built even for
the first versions of iOS and Android are still usable on the current
versions (if not optimised for the latest OS features) – but of course
that doesn't help if an entirely new operating system comes along in
future.
Maximal forward and backward (and cross-platform) compatibility is
always good though, and HTML/CSS/javascript comes out top here.
I'm always pro basic (responsive) websites for meeting the standard user
needs like visitor information, research and engaging content. Web is
also discoverable via Google, inbound links, and so on.
However there are some things that apps are great for – like games,
tools, standalone experiences... Plus they can be paid-for, use more of
the hardware features of the device, and receive push notifications.
There are also ways to re-use code between iOS, Android and web so it's
not always a case of being completely platform-specific.
As much as I hate to say "it depends", it all depends... :)
Frankie
* If we were making Launchball
(http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/) today, it'd
probably be an app...
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