
No one wants to download apps. Here's what companies need to build instead - sophiaellis
https://instantlabs.io/post-page/43
======
dvdsgl
When we launched [https://glideapps.com](https://glideapps.com), we expected
to use PWA as a temporary platform as we tested our product theories. The
advances Google, Microsoft, and even Apple have made in PWA support since then
totally surprised us, and our web-based apps have taken us further than we
ever imagined. I've always been skeptical of non-native but I can't argue with
what I see every day.

------
kalmanolah
Totally unrelated, but the letter-spacing CSS property is really ruining the
readability of the text on that page.

------
CaptSkinny
It blows my mind that complex desktop apps-think spreadsheets and image
editing--are moving towards the web while every online forum and retailer
offers a native mobile app. It's the antithesis of reason.

Complex functionality that doesn't depend on a remote resource belongs in a
native app, whether desktop or mobile: Spreadsheet, CAD, word processor, etc.
Online shopping, social media, and other content-based services that rely
primarily on server-side resources gain nothing from native mobile apps.

------
JMTQp8lwXL
If nobody wants to download apps, that's kind of an admission that walled
garden is fundamentally flawed. Walled gardens surely benefit their owners,
but for the rest of us? I'm unsure.

------
ericcholis
The value, as I see it, in a native app for an ecommerce company lies in
personalized push notifications (transactional and marketing). However,
encouraging users to download an app solely for that purpose seems like an
impossible task.

I'm of the mind that holistic "let the customer decide" approach is best. Have
a very solid strategy for a PWA, native app, and your marketing/notification
funnel. As long as the opportunity cost of developing and maintaining an app
isn't prohibitive....

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
The value proposition of downloading the app (in the ecommerce space) only
makes sense if I'm regularly purchasing from you. And the only retailer that
large might be Amazon. Anything else that's niche, I'm not buying all that
frequently.

