The impact of mobile apps on the Web search and browsing paradigms has undoubtedly introduced a richer user experience in a variety of usage scenarios. According to a recent survey, typical iPhone users have 108 apps installed on their device, and spend on average 84 minutes a day using them, thus confirming that changes in information consumption patterns on the Web are already well under way and we are already experiencing the “appification” of a smarter web in terms of interface usability.
The explosion of mobile devices usage and the rise of dedicated apps stores has created a huge market for apps or task-oriented software ready to be downloaded from different web sources (the major mobile OS platforms are represented by Apple iOS with the famous App Store, Android linked with the Google Play platform and Microsoft with its new Windows Phone Store).
Furthermore, recent development in web clients (such as a web browser and in specific Google Chrome) has created a new trend using web apps, software applications coded in JavaScript language combined with a browser-rendered markup language like HTML. Most of times web apps represent a cross-platform replacement for a native mobile app that is built for a specific platform (for instance iOS or Android). A good example of a well-designed and efficient web app is Gmail app which is available for iOs and Android devices as native app while it can be used as web app on BlackBerry and Windows devices (including OS-level apps for Mac and Windows).
It can be reductive referring only to mobile apps. In fact, it can be stated that we are entering a post-web page era, assisting the transition from the classic web site model (where a server application generates static html pages) to the web app model (where we have more web-based interfaces and technologies).
Moreover, the explosion of HTML5 will help the client side taking control of generating a richer user interface with extended video format and interactive content as well as a cross-platform compatibility. The main aspect of the next major revision of the HTML standard is that it will be enough to create a web app one single time as it will be accessible from different devices without worrying about retro or future compatibility issues.
The table below specifies some advantages and disadvantages about adopting the classic server-generated web sites compared with client-side web app model.
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