Apple iPhone, Google Android and BlackBerry smartphones have revolutionised accessing the internet whilst on the move and are capable of so much more.
Although sold primarily as mobile phones, these amazing devices are as powerful as laptops from a few years ago and boast user interfaces that are slick, fast and easy to use.
They are not all show and no substance either, boasting support for the latest web standards, databases and enough memory to handle almost any task you throw at them.
The App Store
The Apple app store and more recently the Android app store have birthed a plethora of mobile web applications that distill and factor almost any idea you can think of into a format the iphone and android handle with ease.
Offering a ready made shop window for new applications, they also include reviews, which quickly sorts the good from the bad and is a crucial aspect to a successful store app.
But not all projects, particularly business to business apps, require or even benefit from distribution via the app stores.
Distribution
Whilst the app stores are a fantastic way to distribute apps, in some cases it's better to have more control over who gets your apps and when, which is where Enterprise and Ad Hoc distribution come in.
Enterprise Distribution
If you are a large corporation or business with many hundreds or thousands of mobile devices you want to target, then an Enterprise solution is the way to go. Apps are hosted and distributed by you and you control explicitly who gets what and when.
Ad Hoc Distribution
If you are a small or medium sized company, or even a large company that doesn't rely on mobile internet at every level, then Ad Hoc distribution may suit you best.
You can distribute up to 100 copies of your app to key personnel or customers whose mobile phones you register via your account.
This allows simple, closed distribution for small companies who don't want or require the app store for distribution.
iPhone App or Mobile Web Application?
Whether you develop an an app dedicated to iPhone, Android, both, or a web-based mobile web application depends on a number of factors including target audience and budget.
If you have a limited budget but a wide audience spanning several devices, then a mobile web application may suit you best. Leaving the heavy lifting to the server based web application whilst you format the output to suit a mobile platform or even differently for each target device.
Whilst this does have certain advantages, you can't use the clever interface controls iPhone or Android possess (you can often mimic them) and operating wholly remotely your app may appear less responsive if you need to transfer lots of information back and forth.
A dedicated app for iPhone or Android, if written well, will feel fast and responsive to users inputs, take full advantage of in-built interface controls and can still connect to a remote server to retrieve and update information, typically via XML.
The downside is development cost. You still often require a server application to talk to your dedicated phone app, whilst also incurring development costs for iPhone programming in Objective C and / or Android programming in Java.
Conclusion
Whether it's a dedicated iPhone App to simplify and streamline a work task, or a web application developed and optimised for mobile internet, the ability to access your business data anywhere, at any time, brings enormous benefits.
