Native Or Web? Bizness Apps Adds HTML5 Platform To Let SMBs Create Their Own Apps — For Both

Bizness Apps, the startup that gives small businesses the tools to quickly and easily build mobile apps, launched in October 2010 and has been growing like gangbusters, reaching over 1,000 applications, 10 languages, and over 20 countries in less than 9 months. It also recently partnered with WuFoo to give SMBS the ability to create and seamlessly add contact forms, online surveys, and invitations to their apps. The startup also has an interesting founding story that provides some useful lessons for your entrepreneurs. Check out our April coverage here.

Bizness Apps’s value proposition is simple: The startup wants to make mobile apps affordable, customizable, and simple to make for the small business owner. Thus, the startup offers a DIY iPhone, iPad, and Android app platform that enables SMBs to create, edit, and manage mobile apps without any programming experience required. You start with a template, customize them to suit your business, and then Bizness Apps makes them native apps and distributes them on iTunes and the Android Marketplace.

The startup is not without competitors in this space, as iSites, SwebApps and Mobile Roadie are targeting a similar endpoint. But Bizness Apps has a real advantage in the fact that it’s product is easy to use, designed well, yet remains affordable. The price for using either their iOS or Android platform is $39, while those that want to create both Android and iOS apps pay $59. This affordability is very appealing to small businesses looking to take advantage of mobile business without having to fork over thousands of dollars to do so.

Native apps are great and all, you might say, but what about this supposed HTML5 revolution? Where my web apps at? Nothwithstanding the fact that there’s been a hot debate over whether app developers should go for HTML5 or native apps (as evidenced by MG’s post on the subject back in February), Bizness Apps Founder and CEO Andrew Gazdecki said that he thinks the best approach is to make a bet on mobile as a whole — not one or the other.

That’s why the startup is today announcing the launch of an HTML5 version of their DIY mobile app platform for small businesses. With this new web functionality, users of the service are now able to create nearly identical mobile experiences for every mobile platform including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and so on — they can go native or HTML5, or both. For an extra $10 a month.

As part of the HTML5 platform launch, Bizness Apps has built a QR code-enabled mobile marketing template to provide SMBs with a simple and affordable way to market their mobile apps to their customers. The template image, as seen above, is automatically created (with the ability to print) with one click from inside the HTML5 platform.

The idea here, Gazdecki says, is to help direct a business’ customers to the appropriate app based on what type of mobile device they’re using. For example, if a user has an Android phone, they would scan the Android themed QR code to be directed to the business’ Android app.

Availability on native and HTML5 is another important piece to the puzzle in building a platform agnostic app development tool for SMBs, and with its affordability, and new mobile marketing capabilities, Bizness Apps has become an exciting platform and looks well-positioned to weather the native vs. web apps debate.

Bizness Apps的的创办，带给小企业快速、轻松地构建移动应用程序一个很好的工具，2010年10月推出，增长势如破竹，不到9个月时间内已超过1000个应用程序，10种语言和20个国家。最近还与WuFoo合作，给中小企业无缝地添加联系方式、在线调查和邀请功能。Bizness Apps创办也有一个有趣的创业故事，为企业家提供一些有益的经验教训。

Bizness Apps的价值定位很简单：创办只为那些负担得起价格、要求简单、可定制的小企业制作应用程序。因此，它提供了一个DIY的iPhone、iPad和Android平台，使中小企业创建、编辑和管理，而不需要任何编程经验。你开始操作模版，定制他们来满族你的业务，然后Bizness Apps自动生成本地应用程序并发布在iTunes和Android市场。

在这个领域它也不是没有竞争对手，iSites、SwebApps和Mobile Roadie都有着相似的目标。但事实上Bizness Apps有一个优势，那就是易用性好、设计完美、但用户仍然负担得起价格。使用iOS或Android平台的价格是39美元，如果同时创建Android和iOS的应用要支付59美元。这种低负担能力对小企业很有吸引力，可以看到它绝对的优势，企业无需再支付上千美元了。

你可能会说本地应用是很伟大的、它代表着一切，但是这个所谓的HTML5革命是什么？我的web应用在哪里？这里存在一个争论，开发者是该拥抱HTML5呢还是本地应用，Bizness Apps创始人兼CEO表明他认为最好的办法是作为一个整体在移动领域下一个赌注，而不是一个或另一个。

这就是他们今天宣布推出HTML5版本的原因，随着这个新的web功能，服务的用户现在能创建机会相同的移动体验，不论是iOS、Android、Blackberry还是Window Mobile，他们是本地或者HTML5，或者两者兼备。只是额外需要加10美元。

作为HTML5平台推出的一部分，Bizness Apps建立了一个二维码移动营销模版，给小企业提供了一个简单并且价格可负担起的方式向他们的客户市场推销。模版图像，如上所述，是自动创建（附有打印功能），只需在HTML5平台单击即可。

Gazdecki说，这种想法旨在根据客户使用的手机类型，帮助他们找到合适的应用。例如，如果用户有一个Android手机，他们会扫描Android主题的二维码，然后被指引到Android应用。

对于构建一个为小企业服务的平台无关的应用开发工具，本地化和HTML5的可用性是另外一个重要的疑惑点，还有价格可负担性，新移动营销能力，BiznessApps已经成为令人兴奋的平台，对于是本地应用还是web应用的争论，看起来它是非常有话语权的。

原文地址：http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/27/native-or-web-bizness-apps-adds-html5-platform-to-let-smbs-create-their-own-apps-for-both/