4 ms·

> We are witnessing a transition in the way the Internet is used. Mobile content requires a tailor made user experience that is not efficiently delivered by the

by cesare 17y ago

> We are witnessing a transition in the way the Internet is used. Mobile content requires a tailor made user experience that is not efficiently delivered by the traditional website model. Although we have grown accustomed to navigating the Web by browsing websites on our PC, consumers are showing an affinity for the App Store model. Couldn't agree more. Some of us might dislike this but it's hard not to see where the users are going. At least in the near future. But I can't foresee a reason for turning back to the browser. Appstores are also a solution to all the speculations about how to monetize content. If the medium is the message, websites (when interacting with them with the browser) are mostly perceived as free content. Appstores are a different brainframe. Like I said in other comments I'm just observing the trend. I'm not saying that I'm absolutely happy with this.

drawkbox 17y ago
It is a hardware thing. The browser is still the killer app where users can control their context that created the momentum behind the web (simple distribution and access to content all through the same controllable interface). Native apps were once king on the desktop but hardware got fast enough that it was able to handle the multiple media types and demands of a browser. Once mobile gets to 1-2GHz processors 512MB-1GB of RAM you will see a return to the browser on mobile just as on desktop. Right now mobile devices are like computers in the late nineties and not able to run most things that aren't native to the device. Which actually helps the whole consumer feeling of getting something for their money that others dont' have, thus the AppStore market. As soon as browser based apps are usable on mobiles many things will return that way. More immersive games and applications (that take more processing) will always run native on desktop and mobile. In a short time when everyone is copying the iPhone and doing it fairly well, developers will get frustrated with all the different platforms again and reactualize their love for the browser which is really a distribution channel.
- mechanical_fish 17y ago
  I like this theory, but would propose a variation: The problem isn't necessarily that mobile devices aren't powerful enough to run browser-based apps. The problem may be that browser-based apps suck for other reasons. There are really only three ways to build one: Plain old HTML pages over HTTP, with optional CSS. As has been said many times over the years, this is the IBM 3270 model with additional chrome. Flash. Proprietary. Resource-intensive. No UI standards. Javascript/AJAX. Better than it could have been, but relatively slow (modern JS interpreters are faster by leaps and bounds, but as usual their deployment rate is limited by the existence of IE), confusing to program, no UI standards, relatively poor tools (witness the recent complaints about Firebug), an evolving diversity of frameworks and practices that will take time to sort out. (The term AJAX is not yet five years old, and this stuff doesn't happen overnight.) These problems, which have existed for years, have led some to predict that desktop apps would experience a resurgence. By and large, this hasn't really happened, because though many desktop apps are great they still suffer from some big problems: They're hard to install and keep updated (not as hard as they used to be, but the gold standard here is now the iPhone App Store) and they're dangerous (click on a phishing link that installs an app and you'll belong to someone's botnet). The iPhone platform succeeds because: installation is a breeze, security is not much of an issue (every app gets screened by Apple; trojan-horse apps will, when discovered, be unceremoniously tossed out and their developers blackballed); there's a critical mass of customers that are on the same platform and using the same interface; there's a fairly coherent set of UI standards and practices as demonstrated by Apple's own apps; there's the full power of a native development language, platform, and environment that has been refined for years by dedicated engineers at Apple and NeXt. I'm still not convinced that the iPhone platform will grow to the point that it poses a serious challenge to the freaking web. But the possibility exists. We'll see how well Palm succeeds in using web standards to sell mobile devices. We'll see how well and how quickly the browser platform continues to evolve.
  - drawkbox 17y ago
    I agree with many of your points. It is possible downloadable apps (such as in AIR, Silverlight, or just C/C++ apps built via direct code or cross compiled from a higher level language) will gain more traction that are just web enabled on the desktop (twitter apps for instance). It is nice to access the file system and rendering pipelines (which is needed for mobile apps since they are slower) but this also leads to a fragmented development platform. I do believe that the ability to type in a URL and browser back and forward was a huge "killer app" feature of browsers. Not to mention the dream of combining media types into a sort of super information system with pages of all types of content. Like you pointed out though, many of the features of the browser on the desktop seem to parallel those on the great iPhone/touch system and screen that has the same echo of that desire for information and media/games/applications. It is really fast and the updates are fairly simple now on the iPhone so it provides the user much of the same experience that the browser did and does.
noblethrasher 17y ago
> But I can't foresee a reason for turning back to the browser. That, of course, depends on how much the browser changes. Maybe it'll compel MS to adopt HTML 5 (plus extensions) just to cut off some of Apple's air supply.
lacker 17y ago
Appstores are also a solution to all the speculations about how to monetize content. Yes, but the open internet contains many solutions to distribution, and many solutions to monetization. App stores permit only one method of distribution, to climb up the opaque "top apps list".
- cesare 17y ago
  Agree.
  - sant0sk1 17y ago
    Please, agree by up modding his comment. Your single word agreement adds nothing of value to this conversation.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
boucher 17y ago
I think it's hard to make the claim that apps are more popular than websites on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it's hard to find data on overall mobile web traffic (or total web traffic in general), but over 60% of all web traffic from a mobile device comes from the iPhone. My guess, though, is that the number of websites visited since the iPhone's release hugely eclipses the number of apps downloaded. And I'm not sure you can call the app store a monetization solution either, considering that >90% of all downloads are free apps.
- allenbrunson 17y ago
  that's not what I've heard at all. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer-dominating-iphone-app-store/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer-dom... according to that article, only 20 percent of apps in the store are free.
  - daeken 17y ago
    Apps in the app store and apps downloaded are two very different things, and that article doesn't cover the latter.
    - boucher 17y ago
      Exactly. We're talking about download ratios, not sheer number of apps available. And the total numbers are extremely lopsided in favor of free apps.
- dazmax 17y ago
  I've heard that apps are more popular in America, and webapps are more popular in Europe.

by cesare 17y ago

drawkbox 17y ago

It is a hardware thing. The browser is still the killer app where users can control their context that created the momentum behind the web (simple distribution and access to content all through the same controllable interface). Native apps were once king on the desktop but hardware got fast enough that it was able to handle the multiple media types and demands of a browser. Once mobile gets to 1-2GHz processors 512MB-1GB of RAM you will see a return to the browser on mobile just as on desktop. Right now mobile devices are like computers in the late nineties and not able to run most things that aren't native to the device. Which actually helps the whole consumer feeling of getting something for their money that others dont' have, thus the AppStore market. As soon as browser based apps are usable on mobiles many things will return that way. More immersive games and applications (that take more processing) will always run native on desktop and mobile. In a short time when everyone is copying the iPhone and doing it fairly well, developers will get frustrated with all the different platforms again and reactualize their love for the browser which is really a distribution channel.

mechanical_fish 17y ago
I like this theory, but would propose a variation: The problem isn't necessarily that mobile devices aren't powerful enough to run browser-based apps. The problem may be that browser-based apps suck for other reasons. There are really only three ways to build one: Plain old HTML pages over HTTP, with optional CSS. As has been said many times over the years, this is the IBM 3270 model with additional chrome. Flash. Proprietary. Resource-intensive. No UI standards. Javascript/AJAX. Better than it could have been, but relatively slow (modern JS interpreters are faster by leaps and bounds, but as usual their deployment rate is limited by the existence of IE), confusing to program, no UI standards, relatively poor tools (witness the recent complaints about Firebug), an evolving diversity of frameworks and practices that will take time to sort out. (The term AJAX is not yet five years old, and this stuff doesn't happen overnight.) These problems, which have existed for years, have led some to predict that desktop apps would experience a resurgence. By and large, this hasn't really happened, because though many desktop apps are great they still suffer from some big problems: They're hard to install and keep updated (not as hard as they used to be, but the gold standard here is now the iPhone App Store) and they're dangerous (click on a phishing link that installs an app and you'll belong to someone's botnet). The iPhone platform succeeds because: installation is a breeze, security is not much of an issue (every app gets screened by Apple; trojan-horse apps will, when discovered, be unceremoniously tossed out and their developers blackballed); there's a critical mass of customers that are on the same platform and using the same interface; there's a fairly coherent set of UI standards and practices as demonstrated by Apple's own apps; there's the full power of a native development language, platform, and environment that has been refined for years by dedicated engineers at Apple and NeXt. I'm still not convinced that the iPhone platform will grow to the point that it poses a serious challenge to the freaking web. But the possibility exists. We'll see how well Palm succeeds in using web standards to sell mobile devices. We'll see how well and how quickly the browser platform continues to evolve.
- drawkbox 17y ago
  I agree with many of your points. It is possible downloadable apps (such as in AIR, Silverlight, or just C/C++ apps built via direct code or cross compiled from a higher level language) will gain more traction that are just web enabled on the desktop (twitter apps for instance). It is nice to access the file system and rendering pipelines (which is needed for mobile apps since they are slower) but this also leads to a fragmented development platform. I do believe that the ability to type in a URL and browser back and forward was a huge "killer app" feature of browsers. Not to mention the dream of combining media types into a sort of super information system with pages of all types of content. Like you pointed out though, many of the features of the browser on the desktop seem to parallel those on the great iPhone/touch system and screen that has the same echo of that desire for information and media/games/applications. It is really fast and the updates are fairly simple now on the iPhone so it provides the user much of the same experience that the browser did and does.

noblethrasher 17y ago

> But I can't foresee a reason for turning back to the browser. That, of course, depends on how much the browser changes. Maybe it'll compel MS to adopt HTML 5 (plus extensions) just to cut off some of Apple's air supply.

lacker 17y ago

Appstores are also a solution to all the speculations about how to monetize content. Yes, but the open internet contains many solutions to distribution, and many solutions to monetization. App stores permit only one method of distribution, to climb up the opaque "top apps list".

cesare 17y ago
Agree.
- sant0sk1 17y ago
  Please, agree by up modding his comment. Your single word agreement adds nothing of value to this conversation.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]

boucher 17y ago

I think it's hard to make the claim that apps are more popular than websites on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it's hard to find data on overall mobile web traffic (or total web traffic in general), but over 60% of all web traffic from a mobile device comes from the iPhone. My guess, though, is that the number of websites visited since the iPhone's release hugely eclipses the number of apps downloaded. And I'm not sure you can call the app store a monetization solution either, considering that >90% of all downloads are free apps.

allenbrunson 17y ago
that's not what I've heard at all. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer-dominating-iphone-app-store/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer-dom... according to that article, only 20 percent of apps in the store are free.
- daeken 17y ago
  Apps in the app store and apps downloaded are two very different things, and that article doesn't cover the latter.
  - boucher 17y ago
    Exactly. We're talking about download ratios, not sheer number of apps available. And the total numbers are extremely lopsided in favor of free apps.
dazmax 17y ago
I've heard that apps are more popular in America, and webapps are more popular in Europe.