Examining the landscape of the mobile development, the hidden challenges of the iPhone app store, and the middle way provided by hybrid applications.

1. Native
vs
Web
vs
Hybrid
Mobile Development Choices
Jason Grigsby • Web Visions 2009
@grigs on Twitter • jason@cloudfour.com
cloudfour.com • userfirstweb.com
mobileportand.com

4. Early 2008

5. “It’s about usage. Not units”
• Number of queries on Google search from iPhones surpassed those
from Symbian-based phones in the days after Christmas. Nokia’s
Symbian-based phones are 40% of the market worldwide.
• German iPhone users consume 30 times more data.
• 95% of iPhone customers regularly surf the Internet. Data services
revenue increased from $2.7 billion in 2005 to $6.9 billion in 2007.
• Google sees 50 times the number of searches using the iPhone than
any other mobile device. They were so surprised, they asked their
engineers to check the logs to make sure it was correct.
• This is why major companies, Google, Quicken, etc. are all launching
iPhone-optimized services despite the iPhone’s 1% market share.

7. Surprise Story of 2008
Flickr photo by Drift Words: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124413076@N01/11846265/

8. Flickr photo by Civisi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/civisi/2611679744/
Web 2.0 iPhone App Store
Web-based Apps Native Apps
Services & Mashups Few APIs between apps
Software as Service No Recurring Revenue
Cloud Computing Local Storage

9. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_web_platforms_of_2008.php

10. What makes the App Store successful?
Carriers App Store
Open to anyone
Openness Closed, Seek permission
who signs agreement
Entry Cost Thousands of dollars $99
Revenue Split 60/40 to 50/50 70/30
Restrictions Many Few
Releases Difficult, Timely 1 to 2 weeks
Micropayments Inconsistent iTunes for every phone

11. 30 million
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/shoot-is-iphone.html#c148364123
devices
40,000
http://www.newsweek.com/id/174266
apps
1 billion
http://businessweek.com/@@0M43kIYQYKPISw0A/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080930_257832.htm downloads

12. Gold Rush was On

14. Source: http://gizmodo.com/5199933/giz-explains-all-the-smartphone-mobile-app-stores

16. Ringtone Apps
(FYI: Justin’s app is out soon. FitnessTrack. $2.99)
http://twitter.com/justin/status/1210786170
http://furbo.org/2008/12/09/ring-tone-apps/
http://furbo.org/2009/02/16/raising-prices/

17. Ringtone Apps
15000
11250
7500
3750
0
0 1.99 3.99 5.99 7.99 9.99 11.99 13.99 15.99+
http://148apps.com/10000

18. Brutally Honest iPhone App Sales:
$32k Spent vs. $535 Revenue
Dapple
http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-numbers-post-aka-brutal-honesty/

19. Throwaway Apps
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

20. Throwaway Apps
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

21. Pinch Media’s Conclusions
•Users stop using the average applications
quickly.
•Long-term audiences are generally 1% of
total downloads
•Paid apps retain users longer, but still
steep drop off.
http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

22. Success Determined by Top Lists & Features
http://appcubby.com/blog/files/financial_realities.html

23. More Open ≠ No Gatekeeper
96%
Approved
(what about that 4%?)

24. 10 Rejected Applications
• Obama Trampoline
• MyShoe
• I Am Poor
• The South Park App
• Pull My Finger
• iBoobs
• Slasher
• Murderdome
• Podcaster
• Freedom Time
quot;Even though my personal political leanings are
Democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly
half our customers. What's the point?quot; — Steve Jobs
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887-2/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html

25. http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887-2/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html

26. http://twitter.com/trent_reznor/status/1681690305

29. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/the-hundred-million-dollar-mobile-app-question/

30. iPhone Only Part of World Wide Market
Symbian RIM Windows Mobile iPhone Linux
Palm OS Other
20000
17949
15000
10000
7443
4714
5000
4079
3195
0
327 437
Q4 2008 Smartphone Sales — Thousands of Units
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=910112

31. iPhone Only Part of US Market
1.RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
2.Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
3.RIM BlackBerry Storm
4.RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
5.T-Mobile G1
Blackberry 50% Marketshare
Q1 2009 Sales According to NPD
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090504.html

32. 3.3
Billion
Mobile phone for
half the planet.
Flickr photo by Pingnews: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/370061022/

33. 3.3 Billion in Perspective
Source: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/01/when-there-is-a.html

34. 2007 SMS Revenue: 100 billion
Flickr photo by Vlastula: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlastula/450642954/

35. 2007 SMS Revenue: 100 billion
•Box Office
•DVD Sales & Rentals
Combined •Music Industry
•Video Games
Flickr photo by Vlastula: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlastula/450642954/

36. BMW Turned $70k MMS into $45M Revenue

38. Symbian Windows Mobile
Objective C WebOS
C
Java ME Dalvik
Palm
Visual Basic
C++
.NET Compact
BREW
Flickr photo by André-Batista: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=408700622&size=o

39. Google Mobile — App Challenges
• Pressure from CEO for rapid releases
• 10+ platforms to support
• Over 100 different builds
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83731031@N00/445924458/ • http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcdave/142758127/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliejohnson/290541732/

40. Fragmentation:
This is what the
web is supposed
to solve.
Flickr photo by .Hessam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/essamo/1070527547/

41. Mobile Web Doubled in 2008
Jan 08 Jan 09
10821
Daily
22369
10312
Weekly
19283
36870
Ever in Month
63182
0 17500 35000 52500 70000
Unique Users (000s)
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2752

42. Mobile Internet to Grow Despite Recession
Average intended usage increase over the next 24 months
U.S. Europe
Current Users 58% 55%
Non-Users 27% 28%
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2009/index.cfm/nr/53.cfm

43. Top Five Services Non-users Intend
to Start Using in the Next 24 Months
U.S. Europe
Mobile Internet 49% 34%
MMS 38% 39%
Uploading Photos 34% 27%
Software/app download 30% 30%
Email 28% 32%

44. The Hope for Mobile
What is the
likelihood of
exponential
growth for the
Internet on Mobile
Devices?

45. Opera Mini Traffic Increases
Usage up 157% year-over-year
http://www.opera.com/media/smw/

47. Mobile Web Distribution
Carriers App Store Mobile Web
Closed, Seek Open to anyone
Openness Completely Open
permission who signs agreement
Entry Cost Thousands of dollars $99 None
Revenue Split 60/40 to 50/50 70/30 100%
Restrictions Many Few None
Releases Difficult, Timely 1 to 2 weeks Instantaneous
Micropayments Inconsistent iTunes for every phone Not yet

48. Ok Hot Shot, How are You Going to Create
Super Monkey Ball with HTML?

49. Ok Hot Shot, How are You Going to Create
Super Monkey Ball with HTML?
<div id=”bridge”
class=”rope”>
<div id=”bubble”>
<span id=”monkey sprite-
replace”>
Monkey</span>
jquery-banana.js

50. Ok Hot Shot, How are You Going to Create
Super Monkey Ball with HTML?
<div id=”bridge”
class=”rope”>
<div id=”bubble”>
<span id=”monkey sprite-
replace”>
Monkey</span>
jquery-banana.js
Some Applications Have to Be Native

51. Five Common Reasons for Native Apps
Performance
Offline Mode
Findability
Device Attributes
Monetization
Flickr photo by John Wardell (Netinho): http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=760902403&size=l

52. Not for all applications
Good enough for many applications
Javascript Performance improving
Hardware Accelerated CSS
Web developers must improve
Flickr: Uploaded February 11, 2007 by hawridger

53. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

54. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

55. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

56. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

57. Javascript Speed Wars
http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2008/09/tracemonkey_update.html
http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/

59. We’ve Become Bandwidth Gluttons
Since 2003:
• Web Page Size Tripled
•# of Objects Doubled
Since 1995:
• Web Page Size: 22x
•# of Objects: 21x
Source: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/average-web-page/

60. Yahoo!’s 14 Performance Rules (Now 34!)
1. Make Fewer HTTP Requests 8. Make JavaScript and CSS External
2. Use a Content Delivery Network 9. Reduce DNS Lookups
3. Add an Expires Header 10.Minify JavaScript
4. Gzip Components 11.Avoid Redirects
5. Put Stylesheets at the Top 12.Remove Duplicate Scripts
6. Move Scripts to the Bottom 13.Configure ETags
7. Avoid CSS Expressions 14.Make AJAX Cacheable
Source: http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

61. Offline Support
• HTML 5
• Client-side Database Storage API
• Application Cache
• Essentially SQLite in browser
• Available on iPhone since 2.0
• Google Gears, Android, Nokia soon?

62. Gmail Using HTML5

63. 25,000 Apps
&
Findability?
http://148apps.com/10000

65. “It all depends on the application, of course,” says
Mauro Montanaro, [Fox Mobile CEO] “and whether
they are paid or free.” But he also notes that the
“discoverability” of iPhone apps is becoming a bigger
problem, and that some of the marketing tactics that
Fox Mobile has used successfully on other handsets
just don’t work on the iPhone.
“The question, as usual, is placement. Who determines
[editorial placement]? Maybe someone out of Cupertino.”

66. Geolocation API
Camera
Address Book
Accelerometer

67. Flickr photo by Lyza Gardner: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyza/49545547/

68. Flickr photo by Thomas Purves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomaspurves/744225198/

69. http://phonegap.com

70. What Can You Do With PhoneGap?
http://phonegap.com/projects

71. Other Hybrid Approaches
• QuickConnect
http://quickconnect.pbworks.com
• Rhomobile
http://rhomobile.com
• Big 5
http://big5apps.com/

73. Hybrid
Apps?
Yes
we
can

75. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

76. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
WURFL
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

77. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
WURFL
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

78. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
WURFL Phone Gap
Add Functionality
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

79. Mobile Progressive Enhancement
[content]
WURFL Phone Gap
Add Functionality
http://mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes

80. Keys to Successful Hybrid Apps
•Make the experience feel like a native application
•Take advantage of the enhanced features
•Don’t simply release a hybrid version of the mobile web
•Optimize performance
•Plan your marketing

82. Flickr photo by MarkKelley: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markkelley/1022720488/

84. Thank You for Your Time!
Work: http://cloudfour.com • Blog: http://userfirstweb.com • Twitter: @grigs
Mobile Portland: http://mobileportland.com
Flickr photo by Pingnews: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/370061022/