Nice write up! I would argue also that PWA can be used for a lot of things nowadays, and especially for fast and rapid development. What I'm not sure that such apps can be handled well, regarding adjustments and adaptations, in a diverse world of Android devices.
That's a fair point about the diversity of Android devices, Milan. Reality is messier than the vision. However, one would hope that two things would mitigate this:
1. The abstraction of the Web APIs and the high quality of implementation by the browser developers (Chrome/Google).
2. Decent consideration should be given by app developers to the progressive enhancement principle, so that the app reacts appropriately when certain features are not supported.
Great, in-depth article! You may be thinking too much like a developer 😉 I think one of the main reasons a CEO would want to build ‘native’ apps is so they can hook into more OS and hardware functionality and therefore provide more analytics. Web apps are far more compatible across the board but I feel that oftentimes there is a bridge between a developer’s motivation and a CEO (depending on the company).
Provide more analytics — that's a business problem that developers can handle if they are told about it. Of course, more details are required, e.g., what information does the business need to know, and for what purpose? The problem of extracting the problem from the stakeholders is one I obsess about, almost never taking requirements at face value. See my LinkedIn post from yesterday that talks about this exactly:
Yes I agree 100%. There is a general communication divide, which affects both sides. In my experience developers and engineers oftentimes have issues with effective communication and upper management can at times have issues with technical understanding. That voyage of discovery is great (as long as both sides are willing to engage). There may be times where a customer or client just throws up their hands and says, I want x, just get it done!
Here is Steve jobs "explaining" the decision to introduce the App Store, effectively backtracking on web apps being the standard for third-party development for the iPhone. Is his argument convincing? To me he is clearly deflecting.
A lot of useful information here. Now if we could get all the CTOs out there to both read and remember it we'd be getting somewhere. Also CEOs, because I've seen a lot of CTOs shrug and pass along what the CEO said was wanted, instead of educating them in what would make sense.
Well written, Itzy ! I believe that it’s very important to continue to have good PWA support and most of the times you might not really need a native app.
If your product starts up as a web product, most likely you won’t need a full native iOS app and you could do with a PWA.
However if you know what the device can achieve and you want to build a separate experience where you squeeze everything from the device advanced features you will likely start with a mobile/iOS first approach. But for sure you need more or better engineers to manage 3 codebases.
Great points, Bogdan — that's a fair assessment of the situation. Unfortunately, many companies are not even aware of the existence or viability of the PWA option.
That’s why it’s important to have good technical advisors, if you nail the strategy from the start you will have way less wasted efforts.
Choosing between PWA and full native is a strategic business decision, you should understand that trade offs for each option and adapt to your context.
To be fair, 3 years ago I was not as optimistic as I am today — a lot of progress has since been made, both with browser & wrapper technology, and on the legal front.
Nice write up! I would argue also that PWA can be used for a lot of things nowadays, and especially for fast and rapid development. What I'm not sure that such apps can be handled well, regarding adjustments and adaptations, in a diverse world of Android devices.
That's a fair point about the diversity of Android devices, Milan. Reality is messier than the vision. However, one would hope that two things would mitigate this:
1. The abstraction of the Web APIs and the high quality of implementation by the browser developers (Chrome/Google).
2. Decent consideration should be given by app developers to the progressive enhancement principle, so that the app reacts appropriately when certain features are not supported.
Great, in-depth article! You may be thinking too much like a developer 😉 I think one of the main reasons a CEO would want to build ‘native’ apps is so they can hook into more OS and hardware functionality and therefore provide more analytics. Web apps are far more compatible across the board but I feel that oftentimes there is a bridge between a developer’s motivation and a CEO (depending on the company).
Provide more analytics — that's a business problem that developers can handle if they are told about it. Of course, more details are required, e.g., what information does the business need to know, and for what purpose? The problem of extracting the problem from the stakeholders is one I obsess about, almost never taking requirements at face value. See my LinkedIn post from yesterday that talks about this exactly:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/itzysabo_how-to-upset-a-client-do-exactly-what-they-activity-7180813813452075008-yRN8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Yes I agree 100%. There is a general communication divide, which affects both sides. In my experience developers and engineers oftentimes have issues with effective communication and upper management can at times have issues with technical understanding. That voyage of discovery is great (as long as both sides are willing to engage). There may be times where a customer or client just throws up their hands and says, I want x, just get it done!
Here is Steve jobs "explaining" the decision to introduce the App Store, effectively backtracking on web apps being the standard for third-party development for the iPhone. Is his argument convincing? To me he is clearly deflecting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiPhzSDiuz8
A lot of useful information here. Now if we could get all the CTOs out there to both read and remember it we'd be getting somewhere. Also CEOs, because I've seen a lot of CTOs shrug and pass along what the CEO said was wanted, instead of educating them in what would make sense.
Well written, Itzy ! I believe that it’s very important to continue to have good PWA support and most of the times you might not really need a native app.
If your product starts up as a web product, most likely you won’t need a full native iOS app and you could do with a PWA.
However if you know what the device can achieve and you want to build a separate experience where you squeeze everything from the device advanced features you will likely start with a mobile/iOS first approach. But for sure you need more or better engineers to manage 3 codebases.
Great points, Bogdan — that's a fair assessment of the situation. Unfortunately, many companies are not even aware of the existence or viability of the PWA option.
That’s why it’s important to have good technical advisors, if you nail the strategy from the start you will have way less wasted efforts.
Choosing between PWA and full native is a strategic business decision, you should understand that trade offs for each option and adapt to your context.
I should have talked to you 3 years ago, when I advised the company I worked for to go with native ios development rather than cross-platform.
This bad decision might have made the company to go bankrupt 😅🤔
Very in depth and interesting article! Well done :)
To be fair, 3 years ago I was not as optimistic as I am today — a lot of progress has since been made, both with browser & wrapper technology, and on the legal front.