Mobile-Enabling Enterprise Applications: Browser or Downloadable Apps?

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When you or your software vendors provide mobile access to business applications, there are two broad choices:

 

1. Create downloadable applications (or mobile apps) that are optimized for different device/operating system combinations.

 

2. Create web-based applications (web apps) that target a broader mobile population of browser-enabled devices.

 

Proponents of web-based apps claim that technologies such as HTML5 will make mobile apps obsolete. There is merit to this argument, but it's not completely valid. Both approaches will continue to coexist, and therefore you need to decide which approaches are suitable for your scenarios. This paper helps you make these choices.