The web apps that will eat mobile
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The web apps that will eat mobile
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Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#2Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now, for example if you want to register a service that runs in the background without the app being launched. Currently that's not possible with mobile web or hybrid but there's no reason the mobile OS cannot look for and hook JavaScript -- or WASM -- code and run it as part of a background service. Could be as simple as specifying in the app manifest one or more code files which contain logic for background processes along with instructions like "run this only when the app is active, run it all the time, or run it on this cron schedule."
A completely different question is whether vendors like Apple will refuse to support something like this because it circumvents the need to deliver via the app store (and the $$$ they collect through the Apple Developer Program) but there's no reason background services and processes can't be implemented in JavaScript.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#3Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now,…
People openly booed Steve Jobs in 2007 when he announced that the iphone would only support webapps. Obviously Apple changed their tune, but it would be funny if they started dragging their heels in the other direction.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#4Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now,…
People openly booed Steve Jobs in 2007 when he announced that the iphone would only support webapps. Obviously Apple changed their tune, but it would be funny if they started dragging their heels in the other direction.
Apple didn't have the app store and it's 30% rake of all transactional revenue at the time. Jobs was somewhat notorious about being adamantly opposed to something one day and then announcing to the world that Apple had created a best-in-class product that he previously said they would never make. I seem to recall him saying they would never make a tablet device -- that it wasn't so critical to surf the web on the toilet as people seemed to think it was. Until the iPad was ready for launch. And we learned in the Walter Isaacson biography of Jobs that the iPad project existed before the iPhone project did!
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#5Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now,…
I have the same thoughts. Phones were too slow few years ago, web standards were not mature, so well written native apps were in obvious advantage. Now phones have proper CPUs, lots of RAM, so web apps for many tasks won't be distinguishable from native apps. Web standards are good too.
May be Apple will curate list of blessed websites and allow them to launch background services, using icloud payments, etc. This way they'll continue to have their cut and their control.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#6“According to Google’s data, for native apps 80% of time is spent in each users’ top 3 apps. Just 3 apps!“
I also probably spend a large percentage of my time online on a handful of websites. That doesn’t mean the other 20% of my time isn’t incredibly valuable and not worth building an app/website for.
As an advertising company Google have plenty of incentives to push PWAs. Apple, who own the minority hardware platform with the most affluent users, do not. So long as this is the case their will be a strong monetary incentive to build Apps as the PWA experience will always feel a little off.
A non technical point glossed over by this article is the discoverability app stores afford the end user. I see this in person all the time: I tell someone about a new service or online store and the first thing they do is search the App Store for an app not the web.
In summary I think companies will build PWAs as either a complement to an existing mobile app or as a first product when they don’t have the budget to build an app.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#7Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now,…
The javascript development community hasn’t exactly shown it has great engineering chops to solve basic problems yet, its a bit soon to be betting the farm on web apps replacing native ones.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#8No mention of writing apps in React Native?
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#9PWAs indeed have a bright future.
Apple's iOS Safari remains terribly lagging behind in PWA support. Even the latest iOS 12 beta support for PWAs is utterly broken[0], including full reloads on suspend/resume, local storage gets blown away on reload, no icon, incomplete support for web manifest, and much more[1].
A charitable interpretation of this would be, Apple hasn't felt the need to keep its PWA support up to par with the other browsers due to the success of its App Store. A cynical interpretation is that Apple is deliberately dragging their feet because PWAs undermine their $99/year + 30% app price + 30% in-app purchases business.
Re: The web apps that will eat mobile
#10Progressive Web Apps have the potential to be massively disruptive to apps as we know them now... and that's before the near-native speeds that WASM will bring are factored into the equation. After making the mistake of going all-in on Xamarin in 2014 I realized, much to my chagrin, that the future of mobile is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sure, there are cases where certain features require vendor-native apps for now,…
> A completely different question is whether vendors like Apple will refuse to support something like this because it circumvents the need to deliver via the app store (and the $$$ they collect through the Apple Developer Program) but there's no reason background services and processes can't be implemented in JavaScript.
I could see Apple et al resisting, but wouldn't a store still be useful for discoverability and giving the sense that an app is trustworthy? I agree stores would not be _required_ though, and I think that diminishes the value of a store and therefore the cost of listing your app in one.