See title. Any clarification would be much appreciated! I am using an iPad Pro.
here my take.
cloud app = app on mobile phone, 5MB installation Android, one can sign in with FREE plan/account (FREE plan restrictions apply like computation memory & computation time, file management), full access to Wolfram Language, you can code while you’re on the bus. you can upload *.nb *.m files from your PC to your FREE cloud account and open and edit/save them thru the cloud app. If all you need on the go is a FREE mobile coding environment without file management, you could just use the sandbox instead. for all mobile coding, an internet connection is required. it is a must-have app for us users and in theory also replaces the need for the NON-FREE alpha app because one can invoke alpha queries from the notebook environment, right?
player app = app on hdd, 1GB download. huge installation on Windows. Also FREE and more like a viewing/viewer software. Not suitable for creating code. it’s an app mostly for people who DO NOT have a full installation of Mathematica. I liked it for test installation and then uninstallation 