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CMP SERIES CERTIFICATION MADE POSSIBLE
Native or Not? Just as U.S. drivers moved from trucks to cars as America became more urban, late Apple CEO Steve Jobs predicted that future consum- ers would transition from desktop and laptop computers to tablets. “PCs are going to be like trucks,” he said at AllThingsD’s D8 confer- ence in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., in 2010.
“They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people.”
Forbes recently reported that PC shipments are expected to drop 9.7 percent this year, according to market research firm IDC, and so the debate still rages about whether the best apps are native — developed for use on a specific device, like an iPhone or tablet, and downloaded directly to that device — or web-based, using HTML5 coding and housed on the web, able to be accessed by a variety of devices.
While HTML5 is the next “language” of the Internet, web-based apps still face problems in terms of being optimized for a variety of browsers. It’s important for an app to provide the same experience across platforms, which is why native apps are often perceived as more user-friendly. Additionally, said Meeting U founder James Spellos, “while the web- based app helps give the app a wider distribu- tion of smart devices, it still hangs on the requirement of connectivity to make it work.”
For planners, this should be one of the bigger concerns when it comes to web-based apps for their meetings. “Too many hotels still aren’t providing adequate (and consistent) connectivity throughout their property, which is the Achilles heel of any web-based app,” Spellos said. “Hopefully in the near future this won’t be an issue, but right now it is, and is why I lean toward the native app.”
For more information about the future of mobile-app development, view a slide deck from BI Intelligence, a research and analysis company focused on mobile and Internet, at convn.org/bi-intel.
While planners face unique challenges in the workplace that make industry-specific apps a welcome development, they also benefit by downloading apps not designed solely with the meetings industry in mind.
OCTOBER 2013 PCMA CONVENE
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