iPhone Applications in a Web Proposal
It’s come to my attention that some people are receiving proposals from design companies that include an “iPhone application” as part of the proposal and web package.
First of all, this is likely to happen when the design company does not speak English as their first language. Their definition of “application” is not the same as our narrow definition of “iPhone app”
I’m being charitable. I hope this is the reason for the confusion.
Anyhow, when I speak of an iPhone “App” I’m speaking of a piece of software that is downloaded and placed on a person’s iPhone device. Then it may or may not interact with software components that are web based,
It is not however a piece of software that is fully hosted in all its components on a web server and totally accessed by the web browser of the iphone. That is still a web site.
There is a difference, a big difference. If you think you’re getting an “app” you will be unpleasantly surprised upon delivery of the final product.
My friend Michael Rich at Zanson builds iPhone apps. And he and his team do it well. They code in Objective C. We build web sites that can function even on iphones, using php, xhtml and css. Big difference.
The reason a company might specify the functioning of a web site as an “IPhone application” is that they might build most of their sites in Flash, which does not work on an iPhone or iPad. It requires a separate build to present their content on an iPhone. So they would have to specify that they do that as well.
A developer that builds in xhtml/css does not need to do that because we can put in stylesheets specific to different browsers, including mobile browsers. A stylesheet is a set of instructions that tells the browser how to present the content. This is different from Flash, where the content is fed with a text file or embedded into the file itself, but the presentation is part of the Flash build.
Think of it this way. …when you bulld with Flash it is like painting a car with a custom paint job. To change the look you have to repaint. When you build with xhtml/css it’s like putting a wrap on the car. To change the look, you add or swap a new wrap.
But whatever we do to make a site iPhone friendly, it is not an “iPhone app” It is not a Visual C application.
Be careful and realize when you’re dealing with a language barrier and realize that is something you’re going to have to deal with long term, be careful of how terms are defined in a proposal..that you both mean the same thing when you refer to something, be careful to ask who is working with your data, which is precious.
And be aware of the difference between an iPhone “app” and a browser based iPhone friendly web site.
