I used to be a “Webmaster” on a few different websites, back in the early internet days.  I designed and posted the website for a light opera group I sang with in Atlanta.  Back then, the fact that we had two columns with a menu on the left, and scrolling content on the right, was pretty impressive.  I hand coded every page, and learned a lot about html.  A few years later, a bunch of tools came out that made it so “anyone” could design a website.  Note it doesn’t say code a website.  I took my well made, hand coded website and imported it into a tool.  (The name of tool doesn’t matter, just realize that it was a popular name brand tool).  The site went from about 2mb of total content, to about 40mb of content.  This was when 99% of all websites were accessed via modems.  The tool had built a set of standard templates and took my carefully managed images, duplicating them across directories and pages.  This made it “easy” for the tool, but ruined the site for people visiting it.

I personally worry that with the mad rush to get applications on mobile devices, many companies will opt for the easy path. And as such we will see a backlash against the platform because of cookie cutter, bloated apps.  Companies need to see the value of the mobile platform as an extension of their brand into a very personal setting.  You don’t tend to take your laptop with you to bed, or to the bathroom, do you?  But you do read and play games on your tablet or phone in both of those environments.

People carry their phone with them in a very personal way…don’t you want your app to be personally engaging?