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Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

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251–260 of 315 posts

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#251

Because of anticompetitive actions taken by the companies that dominate the mobile operating systems market in order to dominate the mobile app distribution market, as well as the mobile app payments market. Those companies made billions of dollars each year through their anticompetitive behavior.

If iOS mobile web supported push notifications and permanent app links on the phone, I don't know if we would be asking this question.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple just doesn't do it in any way. There's no way to permamently store data on Safari. At least Google Chrome has the File writer API (even though it would be good to have permament IndexedDB storage as well).

IIRC you can permanently store information under iOS Safari if the site is installed as a PWA, which makes some amount of sense. By associating long term storage with the intentional action of adding to Home Screen, sites are prevented from storing things without user permission and the feature's capability as a method of fingerprinting is greatly reduced.

Apple has gimped PWA support for iOS. It’s support and lack of features is atrocious.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#253
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real question is how did the web remain relevant while being so far behind this tectonic platform shift? We didn't all shift to to smartphones the instant they became available. It took a while for people to transition to smartphones. Likewise getting an app up and running (in addition to their websites) took time for most businesses, and many probably waited before jumping on the band wagon I am sure everyone…

I feel you have this completely backwards. I think for the vast majority of non-tech users, the smartphone was their first everyday computer.

Kids use computers regularly at school from a very young age.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#255
post #59

When iPhone and Android hit the scene the 'rich' web experience was primarily flash, silverlight, and some java applets (taking their last breathe). Input APIs for touch, multitouch and gesture were a mess for many years in the browser. Media queries didn't become a w3c recommendation until 2012 so building a ux that looked pleasant really wasn't possible. The memory, cpu, GPU, storage and battery constraints were un…

I would agree with you if not for the fact that a lot of these popular "native apps" are just webpages within a native wrapper, which kind of defeats your argument. Brands and vendors don't like the web because often they cannot 100% control what browsers do, and of course, a browser website cannot get access to the whole contact list, phone numbers and files on a phone device unlike a native app... Installing an app…

PWAs were crippled by the mobile operating system vendor with 60% of the mobile OS marketshare in the US. PWAs didn't happen because Apple doesn't want them to compete fairly with native apps on iOS.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect everyone is wrong, but we're all subject to an availability bias. We assume that things we actively notice other people doing in public are representative of what everyone (or everyone in some category to which we've assigned that person) is doing. We don't notice all the people not engaging in that behavior because they're not noteworthy.

==We assume that things we actively notice other people doing in public are representative of what everyone (or everyone in some category to which we've assigned that person) is doing. We don't notice all the people not engaging in that behavior because they're not noteworthy.== Doesn’t this comment include it’s own set of biases?

Such as?

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have iphone either, but based on my observations many (most?) iphone owners have disabled safari location services from the os side, so you can't just allow them from the permission popup, but you need to go to the os settings and enable them for safari before you can bypass the permission popup. Again, I do not own an iphone, so not sure if it is exactly like this, but something like that needs to be done i…

I wish I could do that on macOS so I stop getting hit with pop ups in Safari asking me for my location. Homedepot.com is particularly annoying about this.

Use a browser that doesn't purposely nag you for permissions like Safari does. Firefox fits the bill for me, and doesn't throw nagging pop ups at me all of the time.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#258
post #59

When iPhone and Android hit the scene the 'rich' web experience was primarily flash, silverlight, and some java applets (taking their last breathe). Input APIs for touch, multitouch and gesture were a mess for many years in the browser. Media queries didn't become a w3c recommendation until 2012 so building a ux that looked pleasant really wasn't possible. The memory, cpu, GPU, storage and battery constraints were un…

> The real question is how did the web remain relevant while being so far behind this tectonic platform shift? We didn't all shift to to smartphones the instant they became available. It took a while for people to transition to smartphones. Likewise getting an app up and running (in addition to their websites) took time for most businesses, and many probably waited before jumping on the band wagon I am sure everyone…

> I am sure everyone on HN moved quickly

This is me. For years my employer offered to get me a phone, but I declined. Why would I want a mobile phone. I don’t want people to get ahold of me whenever they want. But, then that first iPhone came out that was actually a full-fledged computer with phone capabilities on the side. I immediately jumped on that.

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open as in no spyware required.

Uhhhhhhhh do you think websites have no ““spyware””? Have you heard of biscuits?

Firefox ships with Enhanced Tracking Protection enabled by default, disabling those tracking cookies and other trackers from the first time you launch the browser[1].

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote...

Re: Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?

#260
post #175
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I am sure everyone on HN moved [from computers to smartphones] quickly" I may be wrong, but I suspect you have that backwards. My guess is that at least older HNers were slower to shift from powerful but complex creation tools (computers) to easy consumption toys (smartphones) designed for consumers who found computers with files and folders just too darned complicated to use. Until good, portable mapping and good-e…

I really dislike the 'consumption device' label, to me it seems lazily dismissive and missing the point. Smartphones, like phones, are primarily communication devices and communication is an active process. Texting/chat, email, audio calls, Twitter, Slack, Teams, Reddit, facebook, Discord, snapchat, etc, etc are all interactive communications media people use to create content for as well as 'consume'. Yes of course…

> Smartphones, like phones, are primarily communication devices and communication is an active process.

Yeah… no. Maybe for some people, but I primarily use it as a consumption device. But then, I don’t use social media, I don’t answer my phone (I listen to voicemails once a day and choose whether I want to respond or not). I don’t use any work apps on my phone, like slack.

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