Beyond App Stores: Weaving Apps into the Web • Hacker News Board

Re: Beyond App Stores: Weaving Apps into the Web

#31

Post by awo » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 6:33 AM UTC

daleharvey wrote: post #13

Take a look at open web apps / chrome apps / phonegap / the Firefox OS project (I work on the latter). The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent. Also the 'apps are an island' comment is quite specific to iOS, Android has a very elegant system for allowing apps to interact with each other, one which the web is adopting (web intents/activities). The…

I think the key question is where will the consumers go? Android is more open than iOS, but devs continue to build for iOS first b/c that's where all the users are at, especially the paying users.

I only know a little bit about the Firefox OS project, but if you give control to the OEMs, won't you run into the same problem that Android has with fragmentation?

On one hand, I don't want to be naive. Everything on the desktop has moved into the browser. That happened a lot faster than I though. Everything in mobile is moving 2x the speed of desktop, so will everything move onto a browser in mobile eventually too? The key difference between the desktop and mobile is that there isn't hardware ubiquity. Every computer has a keyboard and a mouse. But the hardware buttons aren't standardized across Apple and Android. The home button is crucial on the iPhone and same with Android. Would either of those platforms ever cede control over that button to a browser? Otherwise, you've got to put that functionality on the screen which takes up space.

Re: Beyond App Stores: Weaving Apps into the Web

#32

Post by flyinRyan » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 10:57 AM UTC

daleharvey wrote: post #13

Take a look at open web apps / chrome apps / phonegap / the Firefox OS project (I work on the latter). The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent. Also the 'apps are an island' comment is quite specific to iOS, Android has a very elegant system for allowing apps to interact with each other, one which the web is adopting (web intents/activities). The…

>The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent.

For a very small subset of "apps". There are still plenty of things that would be hard or impossible to do in a web app.

Re: Beyond App Stores: Weaving Apps into the Web

#33

Post by daleharvey » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 2:08 PM UTC

flyinRyan wrote: post #32

daleharvey wrote: post #13

Take a look at open web apps / chrome apps / phonegap / the Firefox OS project (I work on the latter). The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent. Also the 'apps are an island' comment is quite specific to iOS, Android has a very elegant system for allowing apps to interact with each other, one which the web is adopting (web intents/activities). The…

>The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent. For a very small subset of "apps". There are still plenty of things that would be hard or impossible to do in a web app.

I disagree with the 'very small subset', especially when we are talking about advancements going forward. There is very little to nothing that wont be possible to build using web tech.

Re: Beyond App Stores: Weaving Apps into the Web

#34

Post by daleharvey » Wed, Dec 05, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

awo wrote: post #31

daleharvey wrote: post #13

Take a look at open web apps / chrome apps / phonegap / the Firefox OS project (I work on the latter). The line between apps and websites is getting thinner by the day, and getting very close to being non existent. Also the 'apps are an island' comment is quite specific to iOS, Android has a very elegant system for allowing apps to interact with each other, one which the web is adopting (web intents/activities). The…

I think the key question is where will the consumers go? Android is more open than iOS, but devs continue to build for iOS first b/c that's where all the users are at, especially the paying users. I only know a little bit about the Firefox OS project, but if you give control to the OEMs, won't you run into the same problem that Android has with fragmentation? On one hand, I don't want to be naive. Everything on the d…

'fragmentation isnt a problem, its a fact'

We will never convince the entire world to settle on a single device, Androids biggest 'problem' is a large part of why it is completely dominating the mobile market (although I dont disagree that OEM customisation can be annoying).

Apps dont have control over the home button on iOS / Android, I dont reallyknow what you mean 'cede control' (unless you are thinking Firefox OS runs inside Android / iOS as an app? it doesnt, its a full OS)