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Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

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Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#51

Post by pjc50 »

bottled_poe wrote: post #44
nl wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audio production: https://soundation.com/ 3D animation: https://clara.io/ Video Editing: https://www.wevideo.com/ CAD design: https://www.tinkercad.com/ Writing/debugging software: https://codenvy.com/ Now of course I expect we'll here the "but it misses feature X". I'm sure that's true. Next, someone will point out that generally, 80% of people don't need feature X, and the fact that it is online means it is many ti…

Let's be clear - I was never suggesting the the web can't beat native. The op was stating that the days of native are behind us. It is strictly untrue. > Remember when everyone thought web based email couldn't possibly work for them because of feature Z? No, I've always used web-based email clients. Did a software developer really say this?

Back in the early days of webmail, when IE6 was new and we had 28.8k modems, someone almost certainly said that. 20 years ago we used Eudora, PINE, Netscape's mail client, or (if you were really unfortunate) Outlook Express.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#52

Post by anon1385 »

Drakim wrote: post #35
bottled_poe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you really believe that nobody, other than the use cases above, use native software? I only listed the software categories which I personally use...

I think he is exaggerating, but he does have a point. How many uses native applications for reading email today? More and more are also moving to the web for office applications. Some areas are completely swallowed. In the 90s it wouldn't have been strange to have a native application for the weather, or to browse a digital encyclopedia. Those areas are now only on the web.

>How many uses native applications for reading email today?

Most people with a phone?

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#53

Post by tluyben2 »

pjc50 wrote: post #51
bottled_poe wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be clear - I was never suggesting the the web can't beat native. The op was stating that the days of native are behind us. It is strictly untrue. > Remember when everyone thought web based email couldn't possibly work for them because of feature Z? No, I've always used web-based email clients. Did a software developer really say this?

Back in the early days of webmail, when IE6 was new and we had 28.8k modems, someone almost certainly said that. 20 years ago we used Eudora, PINE, Netscape's mail client, or (if you were really unfortunate) Outlook Express.

Pine -> Mutt -> Webmail for me. Those desktop clients were(are?) horrible. For iPhone/iPad I do like Inbox though.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#54

Post by arrrg »

no_gravity wrote: post #6

The difference between web and app is trust. A website has write access to my screen, my speakers and my internet connection. Plus limited read access. To keyboard, mouse, device orientation etc. Other rights can be granted (location, cookies etc). It can do all this only as long as it's "open". An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the m…

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble.

I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones), but if you use something not so often?

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#55

Post by tluyben2 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #2

I believe that mobile browser will beat apps, like it did on desktop. Mobile browsers were unusable, sites were not mobile-friendly, devices were slow with tiny screens. Now those factors change and browsing websites on modern smartphone is much more usable. And it's likely that we will see shift from mobile apps to mobile websites in the near future.

I try to find an app for things I regularly (daily) use. Some things have excellent apps which far surpass the web experience for me (like Reddit, Linkedin, Inbox, Skype) while others are crap (all HN apps I tried, including the paid ones, Hipchat (what a piece of...), almost all airline apps).

But when the experience of the app surpasses the web, it does so by such a stretch that when I start the web version on my desktop I close it again and take out my iPad. For me a company definitely only takes it's customers serious if they have smooth native apps as well as a smooth responsive web experience.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#56

Post by partiallypro »

bottled_poe wrote: post #7
vbezhenar wrote: post #2

I believe that mobile browser will beat apps, like it did on desktop. Mobile browsers were unusable, sites were not mobile-friendly, devices were slow with tiny screens. Now those factors change and browsing websites on modern smartphone is much more usable. And it's likely that we will see shift from mobile apps to mobile websites in the near future.

>like it did on desktop It's pretty great that this happened. I'm so sick of using these pesky desktop applications. Just remind me, which web apps can I use for the following? -Audio production -3D animation -Video editing -CAD design -Writing/debugging software

Those are all apps that actually need more access to the machine's resources. That's not really a comparable to what -most- apps in all of the major app stores do. Most of the apps in the app store are just for media consumption and generally the web version is better than the native app. See Facebook for example.

Media consumption v media creation I think is the distinct line that need to be crossed before a native app makes a whole lot of sense.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#57

Post by johnhkg »

arrrg wrote: post #54
no_gravity wrote: post #6

The difference between web and app is trust. A website has write access to my screen, my speakers and my internet connection. Plus limited read access. To keyboard, mouse, device orientation etc. Other rights can be granted (location, cookies etc). It can do all this only as long as it's "open". An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the m…

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble. I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones),…

I have observed that non-tech people find the App Icons sitting on their home screens to be very convenient to access a service they use, kinda like bookmarks.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#58

Post by bobajeff »

bottled_poe wrote: post #44
nl wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audio production: https://soundation.com/ 3D animation: https://clara.io/ Video Editing: https://www.wevideo.com/ CAD design: https://www.tinkercad.com/ Writing/debugging software: https://codenvy.com/ Now of course I expect we'll here the "but it misses feature X". I'm sure that's true. Next, someone will point out that generally, 80% of people don't need feature X, and the fact that it is online means it is many ti…

Let's be clear - I was never suggesting the the web can't beat native. The op was stating that the days of native are behind us. It is strictly untrue. > Remember when everyone thought web based email couldn't possibly work for them because of feature Z? No, I've always used web-based email clients. Did a software developer really say this?

As far as the number of products used and time spent are concerned it is. Most of the growth in the software industry over the last decade or so had been on the web.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#59

Post by andybak »

ekianjo wrote: post #49
benbristow wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the microphone, ask me for money etc. And it can keep doing so even when it's "closed". The Play Store and installing APK's shows you a full list of permissions that the app will have access to before installing. If you're not happy with it, just don't install the app.

> The Play Store and installing APK's shows you a full list of permissions that the app will have access to before installing. If you're not happy with it, just don't install the app. That's a shitty way to do things. You should be able to revoke access to things the app is asking and still use the (then crippled) app. There are tons of apps who ask way more access rights than they need (obviously not related to thei…

Just to note - Android M moves to just in time permissions.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#60

Post by partiallypro »

coob wrote: post #30

Apps use less data than mobile web sites - API's over full HTML/CSS/JS stacks. When a web page on a modern news site can be ~20MB, this news is no surprise.

I don't know what news site you're visiting...in any case, this is about unique visits, not bandwidth consumption.
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