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I think you're right about both the two problems and the irony of the two of them being almost opposites extremes. With a web site, you can mostly avoid both t

I think you're right about both the two problems and the irony of the two of them being almost opposites extremes. With a web site, you can mostly avoid both though, as web apps have evolved a variety of models where someone can try it out before they make any kind of commitment. Don't like it? Close browser, done. Like it enough to look again later or ask friends? Bookmark and/or share. Like it enough to commit right now? Hit the sign up button and create your account, or follow some other process that the site offers for saving what you were doing more permanently. There are no red tape or royalties to worry about in publishing your site, and because of the lower commitment there's less of a worry about quality for users visiting for the first time. One fundamental difficulty with the app store model is that while its uniformity may make it easy to use, it also offers little influence or control to app developers before someone hits that button to install. And as anyone who's worked on the web equivalent can testify, that's probably where the majority of the customer acquisition process takes place. You're pretty far into the funnel by the time someone is actually downloading your app to their device.

rusk 9y ago
Yes. I think this is the phenomena that's eating both appstores' lunches of late.
- Silhouette 9y ago
  I'm not sure either emperor ever had much in the way of clothes. They sucked a lot of, dare I say, naive developers in because for the few apps that really did hit it out of the park the rewards could be astronomical. However, expecting to publish the next Angry Birds as an app is a bit like getting into web development and expecting to be the next Facebook. Sooner or later, someone will be, but many thousands more will have tried and failed in the meantime.
  - rusk 9y ago
    Ah I think going on 10 years ago native apps were a good bit ahead of web apps in terms of what you could do. Even currently native apps can have the edge in a number of areas, but the gap has closed. I think, for instance developing angry birds for web would be a little better off still in the native space. But the thing is, when you're talking about growth you're concerned not with these specialist areas, but the fringe areas where many are simply deciding web is more straightforward than native and is "good enough".
    - Silhouette 9y ago
      Fair enough, in the early days native apps had some big advantages. On iOS they still do to some extent, though that's mostly because Safari is such a limited browser and Apple won't let anyone else build something better on their platform. (<cynic>Gee, I wonder why.</cynic>) As you say, though, the web just has to be good enough to rival native mobile apps, and for most purposes that's been the case for several years now.

rusk 9y ago

Yes. I think this is the phenomena that's eating both appstores' lunches of late.

Silhouette 9y ago
I'm not sure either emperor ever had much in the way of clothes. They sucked a lot of, dare I say, naive developers in because for the few apps that really did hit it out of the park the rewards could be astronomical. However, expecting to publish the next Angry Birds as an app is a bit like getting into web development and expecting to be the next Facebook. Sooner or later, someone will be, but many thousands more will have tried and failed in the meantime.
- rusk 9y ago
  Ah I think going on 10 years ago native apps were a good bit ahead of web apps in terms of what you could do. Even currently native apps can have the edge in a number of areas, but the gap has closed. I think, for instance developing angry birds for web would be a little better off still in the native space. But the thing is, when you're talking about growth you're concerned not with these specialist areas, but the fringe areas where many are simply deciding web is more straightforward than native and is "good enough".
  - Silhouette 9y ago
    Fair enough, in the early days native apps had some big advantages. On iOS they still do to some extent, though that's mostly because Safari is such a limited browser and Apple won't let anyone else build something better on their platform. (<cynic>Gee, I wonder why.</cynic>) As you say, though, the web just has to be good enough to rival native mobile apps, and for most purposes that's been the case for several years now.