13 March 2019

Responsive website VS app

When it comes to a web design company in Bangkok, it is now (rightly) taken for granted that it will be mobile responsive to at least be on a level playing field to compete within the given industry. Yet you may find many companies feel the need to want or desire to have an app instead of or in addition to. The idea being that it is a way to tackle and get ahead in the competitive mobile market place. The key question here and one that we’ll address is, is it better to have a responsive website or develop an app for your business?

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The boom of the smart phone back in 2007 with the original iPhone completely changed the way we communicate both in personal and business use. It created the concept of the mobile app and subsequently now 10s of Thousands available across iOS and Android devices.

Many companies decided it was the way forward to take their business to the next level of user compatibility and usage. Deciding to ride the wave seeing it as a way to stay ahead in the marketplace in such a digital conscious and consuming society.

There are innumerable benefits of having a mobile app for your business and in relation to what we do, provide 2 very clear cut and important goals. Firstly, the company building the app already has considerable brand recognition. The likes of McDonalds or Coca-Cola have a considerable following so can offer the app for member points/rewards and benefits. In this case we would view the use of the app as serving a particular purpose and reason to exist.

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Secondly, a main use for having an app is it is the company’s product or service. For example, Snapchat’s key function (sending and receiving disappearing photos and videos) only works on their app. An app is the ideal platform for Snapchat because the app is quite literally their entire business. It makes sense as a mobile app because it takes advantage of core features of a phone: a camera with video capabilities, plus quick and easy access.

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These are cases for having or using an app but if your choice does not fit into one or ideally both of these criteria, we would advise against moving down this route. Research tells us that most users will only use 6-10 apps per week! Research also tells us that 30 days after downloading the app the retention rate is only 3.2%, not very good odds!

With these factors in mind the last question is, do you even have the budget to build a mobile app? Considering they need to be coded for both iOS and Android devices you can be staring at considerable costs with no guarantee of it being successfully downloaded or used.

Therefore we generally encourage our clients to focus on designing and building a fully mobile responsive website. The costs are fractional in comparison and they also service to fully enhance the marketability of the brand online for both SEO and SEM. Responsive web design is the only way to provide your clients with high quality, user experience across ALL devices and is much more effective than apps when it comes to getting found online.

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Apps are great and they will continue to drive revenue to business’s whose core functionality revolves around them but for everyone else, they are ultimately irrelevant to the success of the business. Please come and talk to us so we can advise on the best web design strategy in Bangkok for your business needs.

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