Mobile Web Apps - The Non-programmer's Alternative to Native Applications

Abstract

As the capacity of the mobile web continues to increase with the introduction of new web technologies, a growing number of "non-programming" developers are looking to web-based mobile applications (or "web apps") as an alternative means of creating and deploying content, without the need for code-based programming experience. This paper demonstrates just some of the capabilities of a web-based application built using HTML5 and CSS3. Although this paper focuses on the development process for two web app prototypes built exclusively for the iPhone platform, theoretically, a web application can be presented on other mobile devices with browsers that support HTML5 and CSS3 technologies. It was found that these web apps were capable of producing a comparable standard of user experience as their native application equivalents. The use of the latest web technologies provides "non-programming" developers with a viable alternative for developing apps on mobile devices.