Mobile Web's Role

As I talked about in my last post, our development efforts always start with native applications.  Because we see, and get most excited about, the possibilities for really engaging user experiences in using the SDK’s designed for the most popular platforms – i.e. iPhone OS, BlackBerry, and Android.

But while our mobile approach doesn’t start with web applications, it does always include them.  While the number of students that own a smartphone increases each month, not everybody has one. We know from the client and user feedback we receive that the user experience is richer with native apps– but there’s also clear value in having a complementary mobile web option to reach the widest possible community of users.

So when we built Mobile Central, our first application which focused on bringing the daily campus experience to the mobile device, we started native.  Then expanded to Mobile Web.  We’ll do the same with Mobile Learn, all the while keeping an eye on how the web side evolves (like with HTML 5) as we continue developing in both mediums.