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.
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.
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.