iPhone applications are known to be inimitable applications which are developed following a specific set of rules. Development of iPhone applications depends upon your needs, thus prior developing one you need to consider what type you are looking for. Three basic types of iPhone applications are present.
Mobile compatible website:
A website is developed which is compatible with mobile browsers. The applications are designed keeping in mind that the website can be visible on any resolution. Moreover it can be said that it is a mobile version of website which allows the mobile users to navigate the websites in a best way.
iPhone Compatible web application:
The application has a similar look of User Interface like of native iPhone app but it actually runs on iPhone Safari browser. For this web application a user has the facility to create an icon on an iPhone just by select on the browser ‘Add to Home Screen”.
Native iPhone Application:
You will find Native apps installed in the iPhone itself. Even if a user is does not have access to the web he can use the app for a web service for data transfer. For you main web applications these apps serve as a client, in the iPhone the data is downloaded and being offline the user is able to interact with it. this Native application is developed using iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and Objective C Programming.
Details about Native iPhone Apps
Native iPhone Apps runs on the operating system of iPhone. The apps are written in objective C besides also use other frameworks from Operating System. it has the capability to store and retrieve data on the phone. it also uses the hardware features such as camera, compass and accelerometer. These native apps are not portable to other phones or platforms. Usually Native iPhone application development is quite costlier compared to web applications. Native application offers superior interactive user experience. These days Native apps can be downloaded to a mobile device and they are managed by stores such as Apple App Store or Android Marketplace. Now it is easy to find them through searchable categories.
Uses of Native iPhone Apps
When you want to make use on built in features of iPhone itself like motion detection, camera, and voice detection native iPhone apps are the best fits.
If you want to ensure that your content or services are available even offline or without a great internet connection then native apps serves the best.
What is Web iPhone Applications?
These applications run inside the browser of the iPhone like on the version of Safari. The Web iPhone Applications are developed using HTML and JavaScript. Usually they are unable to access the resources of iPhone like contacts, photos and calendar. These apps also do not have access to hardware features of iPhone such as accelerometer, compass and camera. Web iPhone applications can easily run on different phones such as Google Android and Palm.
Where it is more preferred?
When it’s a question of compatibility Web iPhone applications are more preferred as they can be accessed through browser thus can be used and viewed on all devices.
Web Applications are usually controlled at server level thus developers at any point of time can update web apps to make sure that all the users have the updated version of the app.
Some examples of Native and Web iPhone Applications
Native Application: Few examples of native applications are camera+ or facebook application for iPhone devices.
Web Application: http://m.goclio.com is one of the examples of web based application which can be access on safari browser on iPhone.