Reader Forum: The race of the taps: Improving the mobile user experience and resulting opportunities

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but maintain some editorial control so as to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: [email protected] [email protected].
The future of mobile content on smart phones will be defined by applications rather than the mobile web. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that apps are becoming the gateway for consuming content on mobile.
Given the enormous success of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Google Inc.’s Android operating system and other app stores, this prediction shouldn’t be surprising. However, in order to create an optimal mobile user experience, the number of taps (“clicks” on a touch screen) needed to get to the relevant content is the most important metric. In other words, the marginal cost of one tap is very high. The more taps required to get to the relevant content, the less likely is it for the end user to use the content again.
Native apps (as opposed to web apps or mobile web) facilitate the lowest marginal cost for mobile content consumption. To clarify, native apps run on the device while web apps run on an external server with thin client software running on the device. Also, while the mobile web is reasonably secure and standardized, it has an inherent disadvantage: difficult to optimize user experience due to lack of personalization and engagement.
Why are native apps creating a more compelling user experience?
In its crudest form, an app leverages the processing power, interface, screen size and network connectivity of the mobile device to create an optimal experience. App developers generally know the first three characteristics well, however the single biggest variable is network connectivity. Network connectivity is a very important consideration for an app developer when determining whether to create a native app or a web app. Most apps today are native apps developed in the device maker’s IDE (development environment) – such as xcode for Apple, various Java-based ones like Eclipse and IntelliJ for Android. In contrast, most web apps will probably have some element of HTML5 as part of its core framework, so that when a mobile user requests that application they essentially receive a device optimized website.
Native apps can be optimized for the device, which leads to the end user being able to consume the content with the least number of taps possible. For example, would you use Yelp’s application on the iPhone, which takes one to two taps, or go to the Yelp.com website from your mobile web browser, which takes two to three taps, to get to your final content of choice? Clearly, Yelp, Pandora, Wall Street Journal, Salesforce, New York Times and other major brands have developed native apps (in addition to maintaining mobile websites) for one main reason: To reduce the number of taps mobile users must make to get the relevant content. Will the transition to 4G address network behavior issues and hence promote web apps? Possibly – but that will take time.
With that said, how do you reduce this marginal cost of taps even further on native apps? Facebook-Connect, which is Facebook’s API that leverages the social graph and preferences, is an easy way that most of these applications can present relevant content based on user preferences on the screen displayed. Location is another identifier that is being used well amongst many apps like Yelp, Facebook, Twitter and games, to provide relevant content. The concept of mobile cookies in applications is still not mature, primarily because there is no uniformity in the app development environment. However, mobile cookies could potentially be a way for app publishers to provide personalized and targeted content for each user so that they don’t have to go through various taps to get to what they want.
What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs that result from native app proliferation?
As the native application ecosystem grows, it creates significant opportunities around mobile discovery and mobile security.
For discovery, current search engines in Apple (Genius Bar) and Android (Google) do a reasonable job in finding applications that you know you are looking for, such as searching for a Wall Street Journal or CNET app. However none of them do a good job of semantic search. An example of semantic search would be “games for three-year old boys.” As native applications start to become the default gateway to access all content on mobile, a new cross-platform relevance engine to discover mobile content will need to be created. While Google may be sufficient for web apps, native apps will still need a non-URL-based relevance engine that does semantic search and takes advantage of resources such as social graphs, editorial reviews, user reviews, and friend recommendations. Companies such as Chomp, Appolocious, and Appbrain are working on solutions, but there are no silver bullets yet.
The flip side of native apps being optimized for devices is that they can deliberately or inadvertently gain access to data on the mobile device that is unauthorized. Security for native mobile apps has become an issue that will continue to increase in severity. Simply stated, mobile applications will need to have a “Symantec” to protect against malware, spyware and badware (unintentional mistakes of amateur app developers that result in user data being compromised). With the proliferation of cloud computing, most mobile data will be stored in the cloud. However, apps like banking, trading and stocks will require personal information entry. Some portion of this data will be stored on the phone and hence could be compromised. Young companies such as Lookout and FireID, and established companies like McAfee are exploring these types of solutions.
The supporters of HTML5 will cry foul here and proclaim that web apps are really the future of mobile content consumption. While I agree that these apps have a place of their own, given the network limitations, they are not a viable option today. However, I do believe there will be a hybrid model for mobile app consumption. Consider the possibility of thin native apps merging with in-app browsers that will not require the user to leave the app user interface. This combination, in essence would make an app act as a bookmark to mobile content.
Admittedly, an end user doesn’t care if they are using a native app or web app, as long as they can get their content fast with the least number of taps. But today, native apps reduce the marginal cost of taps. The number of taps on these apps will determine their success. In this case – more is not better.