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Why UK's Government Digital Service Decided To Ditch Apps (govinsider.asia)
In a world where there's an app for nearly every product and service, the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) still rely on its website to serve its customers. "But why?" You ask. Ben Terrett, former head of design at GDS outlined some of the reasons in a recent interview. He said the problem with mobiles apps is that they require a lot of commitment and resources. Apps are "very expensive to produce, and they're very very expensive to maintain because you have to keep updating them when there are software changes." He concludes that government services are much better off with responsive websites (websites whose layout and design adapt in accordance with the device it's being accessed on). "If you believe in the open internet that will always win," Terrett said, adding that responsive websites are also much cheaper to build and maintain. Another benefit of responsive websites is, he adds, that when you want to push an update, only one platform needs to get updated. From the report: Key to the GDS' approach is designing for user needs, not organizational requirements, Terrett says. "That is how good digital services designed and built these days. That is how everyone does it, whether that's Google or Facebook or British Airways or whoever." The problem is that public sector agencies tend not to design with citizens in mind. "Things are just designed to suit the very silos that the project sits in, and the user gets lost in there," Terrett adds.According to estimates, the move to go the responsive website way has saved them $8.2B in four years.
The app can track your location and report back what files you have in storage.
Apps are about marketing; not technology. Having an icon on your device that shows [insert brand here] keeps it in your head.
Also, EVERY ONE of them wants to send you notifications. Why? So that they can splash their crap on your screen. "On SALE!" or "Check out our new content!" - while sending more ad revenue our way. And you take notice of it before swiping it away thnking it might be email. Now, of course many of us don't allow such nonsense but someone who's hooked on say shoes, LOVES the Zappos notifications! I bet their app has sold more shoes than any of their web page ads.
Mobile devices have become the best targeted advertising platform ever!
Actually, if you write the web app correctly with the offline.manifest file, you can make much of the site work offline. I've implemented a Cordova application that uses the offline manifest and local storage to enable a user to interact with the system and then sync back to the main server once the network connection is reestablished. You just have to cache a lot of the "driving" data and make sure that you don't exceed local storage. But it works.