The use of tablets and smartphones has been rapidly growing and it can’t be stopped. So if you want to launch a mobile presence for your business, you might as well know the difference between a mobile app and a mobile friendly website. These two may look the same to you but there is so much elements that you have to consider for you to be able to come up with something that would benefit your business.

A mobile friendly website and a mobile app are both accessed using a handheld device like a smartphone or a tablet. However, before you can truly understand their advantages, it is best to comprehend first their differences.

Mobile friendly websites are designed to work properly with handheld devices and desktops. It follows the standards for displaying your website on any device, may it be on a computer or a smartphone. You can access it using a browser.

Mobile application on the other hand is made solely to work on a smartphone. It is a stand-alone software that you can download from Android Market, Apple App Store and Blackberry App World. You don’t need a browser to access it.

Whether to create a mobile friendly website or a mobile app is a choice you have to make based on the needs of your business. Anyhow, you can always start at making a mobile friendly website and you can decide later on to have a mobile app if you think it would be more effective for your business.