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Ask HN: iPhone Web App or iPhone App?

9 points by bapbap ↗ HN
Hello all,

Sorry, this place is becoming my goto place for benign questions, being a lowly lone developer has its drawbacks!

You are looking for some information via Google on your iPhone/iPod touch. You find a link to a website that has all you need. Two options:

1) The website is optimised for the iPhone and looks nice enough but is fairly dumb i.e. no location awareness, access to contacts etc.

2) The website says, hey we have an iPhone app, you need to install it to see this lovely information. The app is free and fairly small (< 2 MB).

Would option 2 put you off enough to go elsewhere? It's not intended as a walled garden, it's a choice between me developing an iPhone app AND an iPhone web app and have them co-exist, or go with just one option.

Obviously having just one is easier for me but I want to keep as many people happy as I can because I'm that kind of guy.

Thanks!

14 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 61.5 ms ] thread
icey
If the application was good enough (and the price was right), I'd certainly install it on my phone.

There seems like a dearth right now of really good iPhone applications, so the more the merrier, I say.

bapbap
Cool, I was worried that it may seem like asking someone to install a proprietary plug-in just to see my site but I guess it's not exactly the same.
aaroneous
If you can, I'd do both:

Making an iPhone-friendly website isn't very hard, and using the iUI will allow you to easily integrate a psuedo-iPhone interface.

Then, your iPhone application would pull in your iPhone website, while also providing the other functionality you want to include (location awareness, contacts).

tstegart
Yeah, I agree with the other folk, doing an iPhone site shouldn't be hard. How often will people be coming back to get this information? Native apps have huge advantages in UI design and functionality that can help display information in more useful ways. But if its short, simple stuff, an iPhone friendly website might be the easy way. Then you can go with an iPhone app for power users and provide more functionality.
bapbap
Seems like both is the best option, thanks everyone!
wmf
If you have both, maybe you can justify charging for the app (assuming that it has some advantages over the site, such as location awareness). Use the Web version for free, and pay for the app if you want more.
nickb
Are you charging for it? If you do, definitely an app.
silencio
Yelp has three options: Main site telling you that there is a Yelp app in the app store (I guess it's using the UA string), mobile site, yelp application.

Ideally having both is nice, with the same functionality sans the native-only stuff (e.g. like you said location awareness and contacts). Yelp has different limitations for all three options - today I tried to look up a restaurant on yelp's app and found it, but I had to go use the full regular site to write a review (how irritating).

ComputerGuru
If you can get away with it, a webapp. Given Apple's restrictions on 3rd party software, a webapp gives you the most freedom and future compatibility though it does mean sacrificing the beauty and elegance of native code.
danw
Build a webapp, then build an app which is just a wrapper for the web app. All the app will contain is safari with the webapp loaded. This gives the ease of building and ability to use without installation advantages of webapp with the appstore visibility of an installable app. If the app is popular enough you can then build a proper app that has better features is you need them.
rdj
Based on your questions and your last comment... let's be clear here. You aren't wanting to make an app just to view content right (ala plugin)? The purpose of the native app route is to provide better/easier/more interaction with your site/web application. If it's just another way to view the site, I would just do an iphone optimized site ala m.digg.com, espn, foxnews, cnn, etc.
auston
An iPhone web app will also work on Androids Platform and I'm assuming Nokia's S60 Platform(it uses a webkit browser).

So there are some benefits to being platform "agnostic" (even though it's not as true in this case).

tlrobinson
iPhone Apps are good if

a) You want to charge for the app

b) iPhone's MobileSafari can't do what you need, performance-wise or feature-wise. Note the gap is narrowing now that MobileSafari has touch events and hardware accelerated 2D and 3D transforms.

shergill
I used iUi to build a web app. It was surprisingly simple!