There are several apps currently in existence that can augment your reality. Examples of these include augmented reality apps that overlay historical street images over modern views, simply show you where to point a satellite dish or they can even label the universe right before your eyes. Juniper Research estimates that the prevalence of augmented reality apps will soon take off as more and more consumers take advantage of what these high powered apps can do for them. In fact, they estimate augmented reality apps could reach as high as 2.5 billion downloads within five years.
As we see consumers becoming aware of these apps like the tech savvy are, growth will start to explode with augmented reality applications. New AR projects from heavyweights such as Google’s AR glasses will help create awareness and launch augmented reality into mainstream attention. With this incredible device the small screen is practically invisible when you are walking or talking. You practically can forget about it. But when you focus on the screen, the display is quite effective.
The potential of devices like this and augmented reality applications is obvious. And when paired with a device like Google’s Glasses, you can share and have instant access to information in an absolutely hands-free way. To control software, you simply swipe a finger on the earpiece in different directions. Your swipes guide you through menus.
Recently the first-ever video created using video filmed by Google’s Glasses was published on YouTube. The video was taken by Diane von Furstenberg to chronicle the debut of her Spring line at New York Fashion Week. “We live in such an amazing world,” Von Furstenberg says, “Things that we thought would be science fiction exist; Where you can reach everything, at every time, any time. And it goes so fast. But fashion, technology — it’s all about life, and it’s all about being the woman you want to be.”
When it comes to viewing the web from mobile devices, “view-ability” is key. Despite this obvious statement, a new survey from vSplash finds many small businesses have not yet optimized their web sites for mobile viewing yet. In fact they report that most (98%) of small business websites aren’t optimized for viewing on the mobile web. With accelerating growth of consumers in the mobile web and new mobile devices launching almost daily this will be a problem for businesses who rely on the web to engage and convert shoppers.
Umesh Tibrewal, CEO, of vSplash states: “Some experts are predicting smartphones and tablets will account for around one-third of all website visits this coming holiday shopping season”. Clearly with estimates like this it is imperative businesses of all sizes consider mobile web development as part of their marketing strategy.
Another key item that comes from the vSplash study is that a full 44% of small business sites do not include phone numbers. In the mobile space it is imperative to make it as quick and easy to contact a business as possible and putting your phone number on the home page is a key way to do that. When preparing your mobile web development strategy think through issues such as this to make sure your mobile site flows with usage patterns of mobile web site users.
Web apps are different from native apps in that they are built using languages and standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 web tech, rather than being programmed in a platform specific environment. Therefore, apps developed using web languages can run on pretty much any mobile platform via a standards-compliant web browser. On the other hand, native apps only work on the one platform they were programmed to work on.
So why build native mobile apps? There are several reasons, such the native app technology makes for a superior user experience and they are quicker and easier to access from the interface of most mobile devices. Often native apps are the option that companies should opt for if they are looking to build deeper relationships with existing client bases, but for companies looking to save money or looking to build a presence via mobile search, mobile web development is the right answer.
While we have talked of the advantages of native apps in several previous posts, lets examine the benefits of mobile web development for applications. One key advantage to web apps, is there’s no need to develop for a specific platform. Instead, apps will work on any device that offers a web browser. Additionally, native apps typically takes a bit longer to build than an equivalent web app would, this can be a benefit where timelines are critical.
One area where developing web apps has a pretty strong advantage is with updates. Typical mobile users update their apps very infrequently, therefore, the user base for a particular native app is spread across multiple versions usually. However, having an out-of-date web app is pretty close to impossible. It is a similar situation to loading a website on your desktop or laptop computer. Each time you load a site, you are loading the latest version (unless you have a version in your cache). If we updated the logo on our homepage, you wouldn’t have to go download an update to our web site, you would just see it the next time you visit.
One of the areas where native apps have a strong advantage is their ability to leverage the phone’s hardware seamlessly. Native apps can access your phone’s accelerometer, GPS and camera but, web apps can only access GPS in a limited capacity. Web apps can’t access your phone’s camera or even utilize photos you’ve already taken so a web developed app will certainly not be the right choice in situations where you require those features.