We Turn your iPhone Web App Into a Native App

Already have an iPhone web app?  We can wrap it with our native springboard and submit it to the iTunes App Store within 24 hours.

By turning your iPhone web app into a native app, you’ll get access to the phone’s features via javascript calls, including the accelerometer, GPS latitude & longitude (or we can reverse-geocode for you to the nearest physical address), the contact address book, the camera, and more.  Suddenly, you can make your web app do a whole lot more!

And it gets better.  We also support BlackBerry and we’re working on Android and WindowsMobile.  We can wrap your app for those phone platforms too, as well as future phones that aren’t even out yet.

And our pricing plans are very flexible.  They start at absolutely free (where we share users & advertising), or you can pay monthly to have absolute control over everything.  And we’re even willing to do a revenue share with you, if you want to charge for your app or for advertising.

We manage the entire native-submission & management process so you don’t have to (it gets messy, especially across multiple phones).  You just focus on what you do best – creating a killer mobile web application.  To learn more, contact us at right, email us or call 1.800.976.3703.  You can also watch a video demo,  learn more about how PointAbout works, learn what we need from you or visit our DevCentral developer section.

PointAbout Term Glossary

Native Application vs. Web Application:

A native application is a piece of software.  Think of it just like software on your computer, like Microsoft Office, for example.  You download native applications onto your phone, just like you would install Microsoft Office onto your computer.  Most of the icons on an iPhone are native applications.

Web applications, by contrast, are served to you inside a website.  There’s nothing to install.  The problem is, web applications don’t have access to all the phone’s features like native applications do.  That’s where PointAbout comes in.  We bridge both worlds and give you the best of each.

Microsite:

Think of a “microsite” as a “child” to your main PC-based website.  If your main website is www.YourBrand.com, then your web-based microsite might be www.YourBrand.mobi, or http://m.YourBrand.com.  The beauty of using the web to create your microsite is that you have access to all the same data that your main PC-based site does. 

Additionally, since your microsite is just a website, your existing programmers will know exactly what to do to make it based on your requirements.  We even have a robust development section to help them build the microsite out.  You get to use all your existing databases, image assets, and even much of your existing code to make a “child” microsite to your main PC website.  And since you’re developing to the web, the benefits to you are enormous.  You can use your existing analytics or multivariate testing methodologies on your microsite.

Click here to learn more about how PointAbout leverages microsites.

Thin-Client Springboard:

This is native code that PointAbout develops for each different phone platform, such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, etc.  Think of it as the “frame” of a picture.  Your microsite is the “picture” inside the frame.  All you have to worry about is picture, and we can change the “frame” depending on what phone platform wants to use the application.

The “frame” we create is very important because it allows you to get access to the phone’s features, such as the phone’s camera, accelerometer, address contact book, GPS or Cell-ID information, and more.  With this information, you can do much, much more than you could do with a regular website.

5 Really Good Reasons…

Thinking of making your own iPhone application?  Stop!  Here are five really good reasons to consider PointAbout’s approach instead:

1. Building a native application is expensive.  Making a native iPhone app requires deep knowledge of Objective C.  Making a native BlackBerry app requires deep knowledge of Java.  And the list goes on for each phone platform.  Are you really in the business of finding, hiring & managing expensive programming talent?  Contrast that with PointAbout’s approach:  We allow you to just focus on web programming, which almost all programmers know inside & out.  And we can even handle that piece for you as well.
2. Building a native application is slow.  Building a native application requires a “heavy lift” from a development perspective, which requires extensive planning & execution.  Native apps can (and often do) take months to develop.  Contrast that with PointAbout’s approach:  We can literally submit your application to Apple’s iTunes store within 24 hours of engagement.
3. Native applications can’t keep up.  Your native phone application will be outdated the day it’s released.  Native applications are software, and software has to be re-downloaded anytime there’s a change.  Users typically don’t download updates when they are released (just ask any friend or colleague who has an iPhone how many software updates they have waiting).  Anytime you want to innovate with a native application, you’ll have to send out a software update to all your users.   But it gets worse.  Since your business leverages the web, in all likelihood you’re going to put most of your development resources into your website and web applications.  But what about that pesky native application you made awhile back?  You’re going to have to divert your resources to update that app.  Contrast that with PointAbout’s approach:  We wrap your web-based mobile microsite with our native thin-client springboard.  That means all you have to worry about is your mobile microsite.  Since you’re just focusing on a mobile version of your website, it’s easy for you to keep your microsite updated and to innovate on the microsite.  Everything stays in sync and up to date, and your mobile users don’t have to re-download any software when you make a change.
4. Native applications aren’t cross-platform.  If you decide to make your own native iPhone application, you’ll next have to turn your attention to making a native BlackBerry application.  And then a native Android application.  And then a native Windows Mobile application.  And what about the next hot phone that everyone’s buying?  Are you going to drop everything to make a native application for that phone as well?  How are you going to keep all these applications updated?  Do you really want to be in the business of trying to keep up with all these mobile platforms?  Contrast that with PointAbout’s approach:  We handle the messy details so you don’t have to.  Our mission in life is to make your web-based mobile microsite, which we wrap with our thin-client springboard, work on multiple phone platforms.  When a new phone comes out, we’re busy porting our thin-client springboard to that phone so your existing microsite will work on those phones.  You don’t have to worry about getting onto the next phone platform, because you’ll already be on it just by using PointAbout. 
5. Native applications aren’t faster than PointAbout’s approach.  You may think that native applications are faster than web applications, but with PointAbout, your web-based mobile microsite, wrapped in our thin-client springboard, will be just as fast as a native client.  We can cache content using our local storage module so your users don’t have to wait for web pages to load.  Plus, even native applications have to access the web for data, so in many cases PointAbout’s approach can be faster than going native.

Click here to learn more about how PointAbout works.

Dev Central: Developer Resources

• Developer Training 101: Getting to Know PointAbout
• View currently available PointAbout Springboards and feature set

• Visit our Developer & Support Forum for FAQs and other help.
  • iPhone Developer questions
  • BlackBerry Developer questions
• Visit our Developer Blog for up-to-date information on our development efforts.

PointAbout has the expertise and resources to help you devise and implement your entire mobile strategy, but if you’re a developer, you might want to do some of the work yourself.  We’re happy to help.  Here’s what you need:

If you can code HTML, you can code a native application with PointAbout (and if you can’t code HTML, we can do it for you on a consulting basis).

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Decide which phones you want to focus on.  We recommend starting with iPhone, since it has a robust, full web browser (Safari) and the development environment is almost identical to the PC-based browser (the main difference is the lack of Flash on the iPhone).
2. Assuming you’re starting with iPhone, you should go through our Dev 101 training, read our FAQs on developing to the iPhone and read our developer’s blog for general tips & tricks
3. Here is a typical development schedule when working with PointAbout:
   1. You sign a simple contract with us, indicating what pricing level you want
   2. You give us your media assets & other required items
   3. You give us a list of Device IDs of phones you want to use for testing purposes
   4. You create a “version 1.0″ of your web application for us to serve in our thin-client springboard (alternately, you can contract with us to make your entire application)
   5. Usually within 24 hours of receipt of the first 4 items above, we send you the application to install on your test phones
   6. We both verify that the application is functioning as expected, and that there are no bugs. This typically takes 1 to 3 days, depending on how quickly you can test the application
   7. Once verified, we will submit the application to Apple. They typically approve within 5 to 10 business days.
4. You can keep working on your application during the Apple review process, and since the PointAbout approach allows you to serve the application as a web page, you can keep updating the application over time, even after it’s already live in the iTunes App Store.

Mobilize your Brand Across iPhone, Android & More

Also, Read our 5 Really Good Reasons Not To Make Your Own Mobile Application page

Learn how we quickly mobilize your brand by turning your web microsite into a native application(What is a web microsite anyway?)  Think of a “microsite” as a “child” to your main PC-based website.  If your main website is www.YourBrand.com, then your web-based microsite might be www.YourBrand.mobi, or http://m.YourBrand.com.  The beauty of using the web to create your microsite is that you have access to all the same data that your main PC-based site does.

Additionally, since your microsite is just a website, your existing programmers will know exactly what to do to make it based on your requirements.  We even have a robust development section to help them build the microsite out.  You get to use all your existing databases, image assets, and even much of your existing code to make a “child” microsite to your main PC website.  And since you’re developing to the web, the benefits to you are enormous.  You can use your existing analytics or multivariate testing methodologies on your microsite.

This Sounds great!  So what’s the problem?

Web-based microsites are much different than downloadable, “native” applications.  While building web microsites is typically inexpensive (because you’re just coding to the web) and fast, you also face some very significant limitations.  Chief among them is that web microsites don’t have access to the features of the phone, such as its camera, GPS for location, contact address book, accelerometer & more.  If you were to build native phone applications for each type of phone (i.e, Objective C for iPhone, Java for BlackBerry) you could get access to these features.

Well then, I’ll just create a native application, right?

That approach has serious drawbacks too.  Native phone applications are basically “software” instead of web development, meaning you need to find talented (and expensive) software programmers to create these applications.  But it gets worse.  Native applications must be re-downloaded each time you want to make a change.  So creating a native phone application severely restricts your ability to innovate.  In fact,  we would argue that by definition, a native software application will never be as good as a web application, because you put the majority of your resources into the web, and you can innovate on the web very quickly.  So if you were to code a native software application, it would be outdated the day it was released.

PointAbout solves this problem.  Our approach gives you the benefits of a native phone application and the benefits of a light-weight web application by combining the best of the two approaches.

When our thin-client native application launches your website or web application, we provide it with location and user profile data, so you will know exactly where in the world the user is, and also exactly who the user is (provide your users want to share that information with you!).  Our thin-client application also gives you access to the phone’s camera, address book, accelerometer, and more, so you can build a web application that looks and feels just like a native application.

Suddenly, an entire new world is open to you. Now you can customize how your web application interacts with each user based on their location and their profile information. You could, for example, provide special promotions to users near your physical store to entice them to come in. Or provide them location-relevant data from your online service. Only your imagination will limit this new channel of communication.

As a PointAbout white labeled application, you will also have access to the entire PointAbout Application Gallery – a gallery of web applications we’ve made location aware, allowing you to include a filtered list of related and complimentary applications along with yours to increase the stickiness and longevity of your application.

PointAbout makes your mobile website location aware. We abstract the user’s location via any means available, including GPS and Cellular ID triangulation across multiple carriers and handset platforms, so all you have to worry about is improving your existing web infrastructure to handle this location data. We can even help with that, through our Certified Developer Program of available developers to assist in implementing your vision with location data.

Additionally, you can use our API’s and widgets to take advantage of user location and profile data. Want to reach out to all the male PointAbout users between 18 and 35 who are in downtown Washington, DC right at this moment, and offer them your product or service? Want to ask all the female PointAbout users between 35 and 60 who are in San Francisco right now and give them a special promotion? No problem, this and much more is possible with PointAbout, and the privacy process is completely managed by the user, so they only share the data they want to share.

What if you don’t have a web microsite? We can help.

If you have a vision for your mobile strategy, but you don’t have the resources to implement it, we can help.  Through our certified development partners, we’re able to project-manage and implement the entire mobile lifecycle based on your requirements.

Watch a video showing how the process works

Here is a video detailing how our private-labeling process works:

See the benefits in action: Learn from our “best-practice” case studies

If you’d like to see how PointAbout clients are successfully implementing our approach in their businesses, take a look at our case studies and best practices.