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I've held this viewpoint for a long time now, and it's yet to pan out. It's probably worth understanding the two main forces that lead to the browser defeating
by johnrob 12y ago
I've held this viewpoint for a long time now, and it's yet to pan out. It's probably worth understanding the two main forces that lead to the browser defeating native desktop applications roughly 10 years ago:
- Developers liked the web for three reasons: write once run everywhere (give or take a few browsers peculiarities), no versioning of the software, and bugfixes are immediate.
- Users liked websites because they didn't want (or weren't able) to install software, and they got a consistent experience across mulitple computers (work + home).
Looking at these, it's clear why native is beating the web right now in mobile. Software is easy to install, and you only have one phone. It's still annoying when you run an app that hasn't been active in a long time and are forced to upgrade on the spot. But that's the only chink in the armor at this point.
- cwp 12y agoApologies for the pedantry, but it's "chink in the armor." See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chink http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chink and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kink http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kink
- johnrob 12y agoThanks!
- dan_bk 12y ago> Looking at these, it's clear why native is beating the web right now in mobile. Another point: Extreme amounts of money (commercial interests) are pushing closed ecosystems.
- mimurchison 12y agoRegarding your point that native mobile software is easy to install: this seems true in the absolute sense, but is it true in the relative sense? There is arguably less friction in running a web app on your phone then there is going to the appstore, inputting your apple id yet another time, and waiting for yet another app to take up valuable screen real estate. In my opinion, the limiting reagent preventing the mobile web from overtaking native app development is clearly not ease of installation - it's performance, which davidhariri argues is changing rapidly.