Differentiate Between Mobile App from Mobile Internet – Which is Better?

Today, someone wanted to know the differences between mobile apps and mobile internet. We explained. This is like the confusion between mobile banking and mobile  payment. You betcha but they are not the same. Mobile banking is taking banking to the mobile ecosystem while mobile payment has no need of banking. But it is confusing. So, we think you can learn something from the mobile apps and mobile internet.

According to WebOpedia, mobile apps is

a term used to describe Internet applications that run on smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile applications usually help users by connecting them to Internet services more commonly accessed on desktop or notebook computers, or help them by making it easier to use the Internet on their portable devices. A mobile app may be a mobile Web site bookmarking utility, a mobile-based instant messaging client, Gmail for mobile, and many other applications.

Wikipedia explains that mobile internet refers to the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser-based access to the Internet from a mobile device – such as a smartphone or tablet PC – connected to a wireless network. Under this construct, a mobile website is just a website that has been optimized for mobile browsing. It can be reached through a phone’s web browser directly.

So between these two – mobile apps and mobile website, which one is better?

These are things to consider:

• Cost. The apps may cost more to be developed and deployed
• Presence – few go to apps store to check new information via their mobile devices. They still use the search engine
• Web is not platform-sensitive. You build apps for one platform like Android or iOS. Any of those can be disrupted but the web will be here for a long time
• Branding – you can brand better with apps than you can do with websites
• Security – it all depends. A good app is secured and a website can also be secured. The risk is largely the same.