Smartphones and mobile devices changed the way we interact with software. Now; everything is more accessible, every transaction is faster, information is more readily available. Details are gone; all that is left is a simple interface in a lightweight form. Impressed by sheer simplicity and functionality, people are looking for apps to do everything. Thus, there is an app for almost anything on major mobile native app platforms.
Having a mobile application means reaching bigger masses. Almost half the world’s population has a mobile device, millions of apps are available on app markets, tens of billions apps are being downloaded every year. When your business have a place in an app market, millions and millions more users can actually see your work.
Businesses, bloggers, organizations, professionals can all benefit from having a mobile application. Promoting products and a website, or broadcasting videos and publishing articles become a lot more effective. Scheduling tasks, setting up appointments, organizing an event or doing direct sales are all reduced to one tapping action.
Creating a native app from scratch requires extensive knowledge in coding. First of all, you have to deal with multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows Phones. Developing an app for each platform is different. On the other hand, you can develop a web application for mobile devices. They are easier to develop and you don’t have to worry about different mobile platforms. But they are not as convenient as a native app that appears as an icon on your mobile phone. You can only access them from your smartphone’s browser.
Having an app instead of just a mobile web site is king today. It’s very much like having your users bookmark your business and have it right in front of their eye, all the time. Considering that average person spends more than an hour a day with their phone; no poster, TV commercial or billboard can perform better. Plus, apps are a lot more convenient to use and this works in your users’ favor too.
There are also hybrid approaches. These are wrapper services like AppsGeyser, GoNative, AppMakr and Como, allowing you to create a native mobile app from a website. Some are professional services, some charge you based on the revenue your app generates and some are actually free. Availability of these services is simply astounding. However, you still need to be able to code in HTML and actually have a website, or your app will be quite primitive.
Plugging in this gap, SpreadsheetWEB removes all coding from the equation. Using SpreadsheetWEB and a wrapper, anyone who can use Microsoft Excel, can basically create a native mobile app. SpreadsheetWEB converts the document into a web page, and then the wrapper converts this page into a native mobile app. All that is left is monetizing your project.
By going native, your extremely inaccessible Excel document becomes available to pretty much everyone. Plus, it gets to have a user-friendly interface with better accessibility. Let’s look at an example. Here is a simple unit converter tool created in Microsoft Excel.
First, we need to transform this document into a web page. Using SpreadsheetWEB, this application can be published on the web from your servers or on cloud.
With a few touches and a little bit of customization, that Excel calculator now looks a lot better. Notice how the menu feels a bit stretched wide when accessed from a desktop browser. Of course, when opened in a mobile browser, it feels just about right.
This is still not a native app, it’s a web page designed with mobile devices in mind. Now, pick a wrapper of your liking and simply convert this mobile page into a native app. In this example, we used GoNative.
Our unit converter is now live! You can find this app on Play Store by searching for SpreadsheetWEB Unit Converter.
Having a mobile application has tons of advantages such as; better accessibility, convenience and market penetration. What’s better is, almost every business or professional can reap these benefits.
The journey of this Excel calculator has been a short one. Converting the spreadsheet into a web page and then transforming that into a native app didn’t take months or weeks. With SpreadsheetWEB and wrapper tools, anyone can create a mobile app in no time, at a lower cost than coding everything.
Repost from Medium
