Write it once and deploy on many platforms. As an innovative digital agency, we get this request often from clients. This is the ultimate goal of mobile application development. Clients want to hire an agency to develop one mobile application that runs natively and can be deployed to Apple iTunes, Blackberry AppWorld and the Google Play store (previously Android Marketplace).

Adding to the confusion: Shifting industry standards on what mobile compatibility really means. Buzzwords and application framework providers toss around an alphabet soup of technologies: HTML5, jQuery, Sencha, Appcelerator, Mono, PhoneGap. (I’m sure there are plenty more where those came from.)

In the real world, this is how we define mobile project categories at Imaginuity. We hope this overview provides some clarity for our shared understanding.

Mobile-compatible website

If planned well at the onset, most websites can be viewed and be at least somewhat functional across most platforms. This means the desktop browser-based experience will look similar on your mobile device. Typically you would access the mobile experience via the same web address like www.domain.com. The exception to this is sites with Adobe Flash technology that is not compatible with Apple products and limited on many Blackberry devices.

• Pros: Cheaper and easier to maintain than building two sites; a common codebase across all platforms
• Cons: You can't optimize the experience for a specific screen size; you get no visibility in app stores

Separate mobile website

This is an optimized user experience that runs on the mobile device via the mobile device browser. The user experience is different compared to the desktop version of the website; most separate mobile sites are designed for navigation with your finger or a stylus, vs. the desktop mouse.

An optimized website can be written once and have it operate in an optimized fashion across multiple MOBILE platforms and devices. Typically you would access this mobile experience via a specific mobile web address like m.domain.com or mobile.domain.com.

• Pros: Optimized experience for specific mobile screen sizes; can have common codebase across various mobile platforms
• Cons: No visibility in the app stores; more expensive and difficult to maintain than mobile-friendly site

Native mobile application

These are the apps that everyone is talking about; applications that you download from iTunes or the Google Play Store and install directly onto your mobile device. The app runs natively on your device.

There are development acceleration platforms available including Appcelerator and Monotouch. These technologies allow you to write code in one language and deploy it on multiple platforms. A very important point here: NO technology framework currently can optimize design for each platform.

• Pros: You deliver an optimized experience for specific mobile platforms; you get visibility and traffic at the app stores
• Cons: This can be the most expensive option; apps take more time and effort to maintain and upgrade vs. a separate mobile site

Which brings us back nicely to the starting point of this blog. Unfortunately, right now there is no silver bullet for easy-fast-functional mobile application development across multiple devices and platforms. Most of our clients and potential clients want a native mobile application experience. Many mobile device users think if it does not download from an app store, it’s not a real app.

Buyers, beware. The fact remains that we want to build it once and deploy it on many platforms, but any technology or software or agency that promises to do this is not being realistic.

Why? An Apple iPad does not have the same resolution or functions as a Samsung Galaxy tablet. Nor does a Motorola Razr have the same resolution as an Apple iPhone. Multiple device and platform deployment requires up-front analysis and planning:

• Device functions vs. application requirements
• Optimization of design elements for screen orientation and resolution
• End user audiences’ technology common denominators
• Future updates and revisions
• Many other factors

Industry-wide standards need to be hashed out and implemented before an optimized experience can be delivered across multiple devices and form factors, from writing code once. And realistically, this is highly unlikely because the ecosystem is filled with competitors, each working to make their intellectual property dominant.

Meanwhile, the proliferation of mobile applications has now brought forth a new trend and terminology: App clutter. Apps have become commonplace like channels on your television. Everyone is vying for your attention, but most of us really only focus on a handful. How often do you use that app you have on the fourth screen of your iPhone? Probably never. How much are you willing to pay for an app, if similar content is available for free on a mobile site? Probably not much.

The takeaway

Plan ahead for the long term. Think about how you want your audiences to interact with your website/mobile site/app, prioritize your goals, consider the dominant technologies today and in the future, and this will lead you to the best way(s) to connect with your audiences.

Fashion Week is coming up, and I can't wait. I live for the national campaign ads from luxury designers such as Burberry, Gucci and Calvin Klein featured in the pages of Vogue, WWD and W magazine. Fashionistas like myself appreciate the chic and intricate details put into the model's pose, smoky eyes and slightly messy hair. But the most important aspect is the showcasing of the product itself, and more and more that is being delivered online.

When choosing the centerpiece for a marketing campaign, design houses spend months determining what one piece sums up the story and influence behind an entire collection. I can’t imagine it's an easy process, nor do I always think the final selection makes sense to audiences.

Sure, the Tod’s bag that Anne Hathaway is sprawled out on top of a car with is gorgeous, but quilted bags can’t be the only style in the collection, can it? The same questions cross the mind of every fashionista when a traditional ad campaign comes out:

• Is what I'm seeing a good representation of what's trending this season?
• What are the influences behind this collection?
• What else is in the collection that I can look forward to?

Luckily for us, gone are the days of simple print ads that leave these questions up in the air. Like any brand available today, fashion brands have had to evolve with current trends in technology in order to be attractive and accessible to customers.

Designers in tune with technology now provide answers these questions using online videos. B-rolls are becoming the industry standards on websites and most savvy designers now have their own YouTube channels to post campaign videos, commercials and upcoming events.

Video channels can even the playing field for smaller independent designers to compete with the huge international brands. Designers can:

• Introduce upcoming collections
• Provide behind-the-scenes footage
• Explain the creation of national ad campaigns
• Share influence stories with personal interviews

While we have appreciated the time and work put into beautifully arranged print shots for years, videos provide the story behind the pieces in a collection and so much more.

I recently read in a rundown of the top 10 luxury branded holiday videos of this year that videos are now one of the most effective mediums used to market products and introduce (or reinstate) a luxury brand’s voice.

The same thing goes whether you're an automaker, a jeweler or a services provider. To fully explain your products and services, take advantage of web videos or a YouTube channel can offer.

As we look forward to all the greatness that 2012 has in store, we’ve decided to kick off the new year by sharing our company tradition of giving back to the community with everyone near and far by hosting a fun Facebook contest: Lamest Gift: The Holiday Fail Edition. To enter the contest, simply submit a photo of your lamest holiday gift, and if it’s voted the biggest loser of the bunch, Imaginuity Interactive will make a donation of $1,000 to a charity of your choice.

We’ve selected some great local and national charities that you can support:

• American Cancer Society
• American Red Cross
• Habitat for Humanity
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• Nature Conservancy
• North Texas Food Bank
• Operation Homefront
• SPCA of Texas
• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• United Way
• The Wounded Warriors Project

The contest is live and runs until January 18th, so pick a charity, find your worst gift, enter on Facebook and spread the word - maybe you could win big and help out a great cause!

With Fashion Week 2012 coming up in February, fashion followers all over the world are getting their fashion fixes online. As always, the Internet is a powerful equalizer. You no longer need the power and influence of Anna Wintour or the celebrity of Rachel Zoe to get front row access to the Badgley Mishka or Alexander McQueen show.

So what do followers do if they want to see the most exclusive runway shows live in New York City, Paris or London? They turn to the Internet, of course.

Some designers have become more tech savvy in recent years and they now provide a way to give their customers an inside look by streaming their shows live online. By hiring someone that understands the power of digital retailing, they can now provide their customers and fans all over the world a first glimpse of upcoming collections.

Designers such as Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta stream their runway shows live on their own websites during Fashion Week.  Narciso Rodriguez, Diane Von Furstenberg and Carolina Herrera have since followed and partnered with YouTube and Maybelline NY, and some have taken it a step further to stream shows live on smartphones.

I remember watching the 2010 Oscar de la Renta show live on Oscardelarenta.com and I had the opportunity to participate in a live feed with Oscar followers all over the world. In doing this, I realized all of the great opportunities we were given when these shows went online. We were able to do things like:

• Comment on our favorite pieces live, during the show
• Share links with friends
• Create a sense of community with like-minded people all over the world

While we can expect design houses to recycle fashion trends from the ’70s and ‘80s, the use of technology in retail is evolving in a whole new way, requiring entirely new thinking. And we have only just begun -- don’t tell anyone, but I heard from a birdie that we may see live fashion shows in 3-D soon.

Take that Anna Wintour and Rachel Zoe, you don’t know what you’ll be missing.

For a good while now, I have been hearing the same things from well-informed web developers and industry friends. “Flash is dead,” they tell me with a smile.

I often wonder how they could tell me such things while smiling, since for the past five years I made my living as a Flash developer. Forgive me if I don’t share your glee, but you may as well be cheerfully telling me that my house is on fire.

So what technology is the arsonist trying to burn down the house that Flash built? Well there are actually three:

• CSS
• jQuery
• HTML5

Animated menus, interactive banner ads, web video and even casual games are no longer the exclusive domain of Flash. With this fiery trio, web developers can do all the things that they would have exclusively turned to Flash for, and these technologies can be used in many more places. CSS and jQuery are fully supported on every major browser and every major operating system without plugins or downloads, including popular mobile devices (many of which can’t or won’t support Flash).

Hey! … Do you smell smoke?

Flash developers do have at least one bucket of water with which to douse the flames: our old friend Internet Explorer (IE). I have to admit that as a developer I have always had a love/hate relationship with IE. By that I mean to say I have always loved to hate IE.

IE6 ignoring the standards of HTML was one of the things that drove me to learn Flash years ago, and now the currently incomplete implementation of HTML5 in IE9 is helping to keep Flash around.

But it is not just IE. Of the major browsers, Chrome and Firefox come close to fully implementing the HTML5 standard but most are still behind on compatibility. The end result is that the slow response from platforms like IE gives Flash developers like myself the time to hone our CSS, jQuery and HTML5 skills. For that we Flash developers should be thankful.

Of course, the interactive world never rests for web developers. At Imaginuity Interactive, everyone is learning and refining skills every day to deliver the latest/greatest solutions to our clients. It goes with the territory.

One day soon, I too will declare that Flash is dead. Just don’t expect me to smile about it.