Mobile Thinking: A Change of Heart

by Robert Wenig, Founder and CTO —

Perhaps my thinking was backwards.

When I first started thinking mobile, I had it in my head that the functionality of a mobile app would be a subset of the existing desktop-browser experience.

When you start thinking about the:

1. The itty-bitty twit screen
2. Lack of keyboard
3. Limited bandwidth
4. Limited OS and processor
5. Limited storage

And then the fragmented eco-system of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, Windows Phone with different OS levels and the like — the “subset” mentality was easy to make. Who is going to build native apps — isn’t every device manufacturer just going to try and build a browser that approximated desktop agility?

Perhaps somebody put something in my Coke, but now I’m seeing things differently. Native apps on mobile devices change the game.

Mobile applications will be a superset of Web-based applications. Why/how?

Native mobile apps can use all of the functionality/features of the device:

1. Scanners/cameras
2. GPS
3. Rich media
4. 2-way video
5. Gee — it’s a phone, so what about using the phone as part of the app?
6. Other sensors

What if native mobile apps are more secure than desktop web? Out-of-band authentication, tight links to the device (IMEI, serial number, etc.)?

What happens when a mobile phone becomes the more secure version of the credit card? (By the way, this is already happening.)

Have we forgotten the most basic tenet of mobile — it’s portable. When the device is with you at all times, won’t you use it more? The more you use it, the more optimized the application needs to be.