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I'm in the middle of developing a site that focuses on restaurant reviews. My dilemma is whether or not to develop a mobile app and release it at the same time as the site launch. The site itself will need more content before it generates much interest, however competitor's mobile apps seem to be quite essential to their business and increases the amount of listings and reviews that users contribute.

Should I coordinate the site launch with the mobile app (which essentially delays the site launch), or should the site launch go ahead as planned and then work on mobile apps?

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4 Answers

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I think you definitely WILL want a mobile application... but you can also just create a well-crafted mobile version of your site via CSS.

I wouldn't hold back though from release. Get people excited about your web app. Then when you build a mobile app, release that as an added bonus.

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Agreed. Get your site/product to be successful first. A mobile app will just dis-focus your efforts in your main development. – Genadinik May 4 '11 at 18:48
Thanks for the feedback guys! – Sam May 5 '11 at 16:58
Keep in mind you can wrap up your web site in Phonegap. That way it will look like a real mobile application but reuse all your business/presentation logic from your web site. If the business takes off and there is a need, you can rebuild your application as a 100% native application. – dave Dec 12 '12 at 6:23
up vote 1 down vote

I think it all depends on what your company is capable of doing. Ideally you would want to launch the site with the mobile app at the same time. But the most important part is completing the site and that includes the content.

So in order of importance:

  1. Website with content
  2. Social media profile creation
  3. Mobile Apps

Best possible scenario = all at once. (if you have the staff)

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up vote 0 down vote

I agree with the above. It shouldn't stop you from releasing the site. We've also made some mobile sites for customers with existing regular desktop sites. Then they release it to their customers as a free/low cost bonus.

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Thanks, are you guys able to take on new clients? I'm interested in getting a mobile site developed until I am able to get the app out. – Sam May 5 '11 at 16:59
Yes sure, contact me on my site, it is my name in this forum (and dot com at the end). Thank you. – ct1 May 11 '11 at 21:31
up vote 0 down vote

You should consider pre-launching your site in specific areas so to gain enough content to make the site interesting - otherwise, first timers arriving at a blank site will likely not come back. There are data providers (restaurant listing / reviews apis) - perhaps that would be worth exploring as well.

I would also suggest from the start that your website should be mobile friendly - and geo enabled. Can't find the data, but there was a recent study pointing to the rise of commuting orders and the importance of supporting them.

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