Flipkart has been roundly criticized for forcing people to download its app. It tried everything in its power to get more users for its app – app-only offers, app-only products and even its biggest shopping fest, the Big Billion Day Sale was app-only this year. But the company has finally come out with a product that enables you enjoy their services without an app. Flipkart has launched a new version of its mobile site called Flipkart Lite.
Flipkart Lite, as the name implies, is not as heavy on a mobile’s resources as the app. This assumes significance in India, where the majority of smartphones are lower-end, and internet connection speeds are not the greatest. The webapp uses material design and looks elegant and fairly minimalistic. A preliminary run showed that the app loaded smoothly and ran pretty fast – faster than the Flipkart app.
This move is going to delight users with lower-end phones, and also may help mollify the techie-nerdy power users who’d been outraged about the company forcing their app down their throats. The move will also allow Flipkart to show up on mobile search results, a crucial area of traffic that Flipkart was to lose with its app-only strategy.