Do you need an app for your

business?

With the boom of smartphones and the ease of access to the internet through our pocketable devices has given rise to new ways to how we consume the internet the internet. With instant on device, the world moved to phone applications for always on notifications and around the clock connection. Stats show that over 60% of people access the internet from their smartphones and that has opened a floodgate for cellphone applications. With modern technology the method in which business is conducted will change, some will embrace the change however some will be left behind. The question to answer here is. As a business owner, do you need to have an application for your business? The answer isn’t so straight forward but it entirely friends on the nature of your business. Most businesses can go with only a website. First, not all websites are the same in the purpose they serve, some are but only a means to get information across without wanting to sell you something, some serve as a marketing tool for product awareness and some like e- commerce are geared to have you buy from the website whether it is a service or product. Business owners need to consider the purpose they would like to fulfill with their website. The purpose or selling points about a smartphone app is engagement to have users constantly coming back and engaging with the app. Even though apps are on the rise, stats show that a lot of people still use the browser for other computing needs. One thing to point out is the costs associated to developing a website in comparison to phone apps. Apps cost 4 to 5 times more then websites. Websites have a much wider reach because every phone has a built-in browser and can access any website. On the other hand, apps are developed with a specific operating system in mind. To ensure maximum reach of your app you would need to develop an Android app, iOS app, Windows app and blackberry app. The technologies involved are all different which means you might have to hire different development firms to accomplish this. Coming back to the initial question, it really depends, however you won’t go wrong with a website, what you can do with a website is tailor it so it functions like an app. The world is seeing a move to a technology called Progressive Web Apps, which is still a website but takes on properties of apps like notifications and plugs in to native capabilities like GPS, camera, etc and can be accessed from every device that has a browser. Thank you for reading. Until next time Banele Mngqi