Ask HN: have you chose HTML5 over native app?

[white]

Dear fellow HNs -

I am looking for real world examples of developers choosing HTML5 over native app (or vice-verse). I would appreciate you sharing with me some of your experience with this choice.

It would be helpful to know:

1. What kind of an app? (Ie. game, service, standalone or extension to Web site, or existent product - anything about what is it and why do you built it.)

2. What did you choose and who have made that decision? (Any insight into decision making process would be great to know.)

3. Are you happy that you have made this decision or not?

4. What you wish you would knew before you've started?

5. Do you do anything of the following: a) monetization b) analytics c) collect leads d) performance-sensitive ops e) rich and interactive interfaces

This also might be a good place to showoff your app, if you have it built already. :)

Thanks!

[lsiunsuex]

We're a 2 man shop providing 2ndary education to a very targeted demographic. I'm the only programmer / sysadmin / anything technical.

I originally developed the website with a separate mobile version using some code to detect the type of device and decide to redirect and when. This, is a pain in the butt as i'd always forget to make changes to the mobile version when i changed the main site (A LOT on my plate)

I'm in the middle of developing version 2 of the site and developing the main site side by side with mobile devices so 1 site can do both desktop and mobile.

When this new version is done, I'll finish developing the iOS native app (i've started it, but put it on hold for the new ver 2 site)

1: I want both a mobile version and a native version - I feel a native iOS app will provide a better experience - BUT - i also think i'll run into the same problem as before; updating the main site and not updating the ios app - maybe by that time i can hire another programmer... As i'm a Apple user, I have multiple iPhones / iPads / iPods to test on. I don't even want to think of how many devices I'll need to build a proper native Android app.

2: I'm never happy; I'm constantly re-writing my code, persuing new / better ways to do stuff; i'm never done. Technology choices are always my choice but I make sure my partner knows why i'm doing something and hes open to question anything he wants, especially if it requires money / time / blood.

3: Version 1 was full steam a head, lets get it done and out there. It has a lot of short-comings - most of only i as a developer know of but some visible. Version 2 is much more planned; I took the time to build prototypes, play with different ideas, think about why i was doing something and not just programming away. I'm happy i'm moving to a scalable main website and i'm pretty happy we'll have our first of 3 planned iOS apps (native app, game and magazine). I try not to do things I'll regret, but making a mistake in the process of learning is ok.

4: How long building such a site would take as the only developer with a day job. I'm committed and hopefully the payout comes someday, but being the only programmer on a fairly large project kinda sucks.

5: I collect as much analytic information as I can. My data to date shows me the vast majority of my users are iOS users (reason for native iOS app), are between 20-30 years old, etc.. Someday it'll be monetized and version 2 will have interactive interfaces.

I'm not done yet so you can't see it!

[white]

- So do I understand you correctly, you have both the mobile friendly Web site and native app?

- Are you monetizing your native app or is it "buy 1, get 2nd free" type of a thing?

- Why do you need mobile app at all?

- Is your native app only to gain more market traction, or it actually can do something Web-version cannot?

[lsiunsuex]

Yes, both mobile friendly and native

Our monetization will come from sponsors - we currently do not intend to charge our students.

Knowing our target demographic, we know their in school the majority of the day. We know their busy and may or may not be in front of a computer. We feel having a strong mobile presence will allow them to interact with the website more consistantly and more frequently. I want both mobile and native because I want our students to have the best possible experience. As I'm the sole programmer, I can handle the mobile and iOS native apps myself. I can't handle an (multiple) Android version or even Windows mobile and gasp... Blackberry. As I know the majority of my users are iOS users, they'll get the best experience in a native app. Everyone else - I hope the mobile version is just as good...

The native app is to improve reach and connection. A feature of the native app will be a push notification to notify students when other students need help. Think of it like your question here. You needed help / had a question to ask of your peers; but the only people that saw it are the people that clicked on the link to view your question. If other people got a notification that a question was raised on a topic they care about, your question would have a better chance of getting answered and you'd have a better chance of getting the help you needed.