Appy government
The digital cabinet office are doing some great work. In their recent post regarding platform apps and the web they make some great points about why the web is awesome and detail their approach to talking with stakeholders.
Overall I don’t disagree with the post at all. I am tremendously happy to see the government talking about open standards.
However apps have the mindshare for a reason. Perhaps we can identify some ways in which the web can learn from native apps. The big one for me is discoverability
So many people head straight to an App Store when they want to do something on thier mobile device. I have seen this myself with users.
It’s frustrating that on the dominant platforms web apps and native apps dont get the same distribution channels. It would rock for both app types to be ‘installable’ from the same store.
Moreover I really want to see some numbers around this. How does the App Store effect influence installation frequency and user stickiness? I think this is a largely unanswered question.
Untill that question is answered, I feel there is a case for apps in App Stores. Even if it’s just a wrapper, it may help people to find what they want.