[notatoad]

> You spend the time and money developing an app, and you want your visitors to know about the app

The problem is that you're thinking about what you want, not what your users want. Your users want to view whatever content they came to your webpage to view. stop getting in the way of that with your wants. the answer really is that all such things suck, your position just seems to be that you don't care how much they suck because you have an agenda to push.

[arn]

Here you are just projecting your own underinfomed feelings about it on everyone else.

Is there no situation where you see an app as being superior to the website?

For AppShopper.com, yes the app is the superior experience to the mobile web. There were overwhelming requests for an app. We made the app to serve our users. Our goals and user goals are not always mutually exclusive.

[notatoad]

If you maintain an app that offers the same core functionality as the website, and the user can accomplish their Immediate goal on the website, adding the unnecessary step of transferring over to the app is never a superior experience. Simple as that. The only valid case for prompting a user to open your app is when their goal can't be accomplished on the web. Anything else is promotion serving your goals, not the user's.

[arn]

Again, I agree. Read my original post.

[Evbn]

Don't accuse parent of projecting for taking your words at face value. You stated development budget as a reason for wanting users to download your app. That has no relevance to any user's needs.

[arn]

Not really. It was a pratically throwaway phrase that people can't seem to get past to read the point of my message.

If i say that you spend time and money on your startup, and you want people to see it, it does not mean that the reason I want people to use my startup is primarily for budgetary reasons.

In retrospect I should have left the word money out of it because it gets people worked up.