The Decline of the Mobile Web • Hacker News Board

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#21

Post by smacktoward » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:38 PM UTC

orky56 wrote: post #14

Discovery, usage, and feedback are all more polished in native apps rather than on mobile web. Mobile web is the wild west in terms of experience and more of a stepping stone until you get frustrated enough to download the app or ditch that service altogether if they don't have a native app. Mobile web has lost many of its benefits due to some very distinct reasons. Lack a stable Internet connection? Native wins Home…

> Lack a stable Internet connection? Native wins

HTML5 offline storage should let a mobile-oriented site store a fair bit of data offline, to avoid having to go out and fetch everything anew all the time. It's just that few web developers design that way b/c we've all been spoiled by desktop users' broadband connections.

> Home screen apps vs Bookmarks in browser? Native wins

My Galaxy S3 lets me set bookmarks for sites on the home screen (and anywhere else in the launcher I would wish to).

> Ease of discovery? Native wins

Slogging through ten million clones in an app store counts as easy discovery? OK.

> Ideal user experience? Native wins

I'm not sure about that. We heard the same noise during the 2000s about how users were going to prefer "rich client" apps to in-browser apps, because the rich client apps would be able to respect their platform's native look and feel. And then it turned out that "I can access it from anywhere without installing anything" was something they cared about a lot more.

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#22

Post by msvan » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #10

I'm of the view this is a lot of fuss about nothing. Big deal if people prefer apps over the "open" web. The reality is a large number of people use the likes of MSN and Yahoo as web home pages, and unless you were linked to from them they were unlikely to find you. The app launcher situation is an improvement over that. The big problem is that dipping your toes into something via a website (assuming you don't hit an…

It's not a scrapeability problem; it's a freedom problem. The article mentions this. Why should the app stores decide what can and cannot be on our phones, and why should they add a 30% tax on everything that is published on mobile? There are a lot of claims that the tech industry is disrupting the big music and books businesses, for the benefit of consumers, but these new players are acting like the middlemen they are replacing.

The web reduces the distance between content consumers and producers, cutting out the middleman. It's not a perfect solution. Standards are greatly influenced by commercial interests. But it's better than a locked-down app store oligopoly.

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#23

Post by coffeecodecouch » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:42 PM UTC

The problem is that the large majority of people, even the youth of today[0], are incredibly un-tech savvy. Unless your website or game is packaged into a simple app you just can't rely on people to visit it or even find it in the first place.

[0] http://coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-comput...

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#24

Post by gdubs » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:43 PM UTC

Really need more data on this besides a set from flurry -- I'm not convinced that mobile web is declining just from that one graph... (Especially since flurry is aimed at app developers.)

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#25

Post by ChuckMcM » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:44 PM UTC

It seems 'mobile apps' are like Flash was in the 90's, basically a way to take full control over the UX to achieve some particular goal. Given the preponderance of such apps it seems as if home screens are due for a make over that looks more like iPod music libraries than 'desktop.' Basically something which supports dozens if not hundreds of apps on a device.

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#26

Post by vladnyc » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:45 PM UTC

pistle wrote: post #15

web/app is not zero sum. There is a wide overlap in functionality, but if the experience via mobile browser is sufficient, users won't care. They may even enjoy not having to curate yet another app. App Pros: Engagement lock-in Richer experiences (performance, native advantages) App Cons: Dev costs Fragmentation costs Dependency on ecosystem(s) App release cycle + cross platform synchro of dev efforts

It seems the pros are on the user side. If the users don't care than probably more developers will target native and leave mobile web to responsive non app sites.

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#27

Post by digitalengineer » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:47 PM UTC

Dirlewanger wrote: post #4

rschmitty wrote: post #2

Am I in the minority that I don't want an app for every. bloody. webpage. I visit?

Yes, you are, along with most users here. But it's not stopping companies from wanting to control UX entirely though a mobile application. One of the reasons for this is that in general, mobile webpage performance is complete ass. A thorough but by-no-means complete diagnosis of the problem can be found here: http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow...

TL;DR? Anyone recommend a fast frondend set? HTML5 boilerplate or Bootstrap, or...?

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#28

Post by platz » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:47 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #25

It seems 'mobile apps' are like Flash was in the 90's, basically a way to take full control over the UX to achieve some particular goal. Given the preponderance of such apps it seems as if home screens are due for a make over that looks more like iPod music libraries than 'desktop.' Basically something which supports dozens if not hundreds of apps on a device.

Somewhat reminds me of the text-based menu systems of early graphical mobile phones.

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#29

Post by carsonreinke » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:50 PM UTC

smacktoward wrote: post #21

orky56 wrote: post #14

Discovery, usage, and feedback are all more polished in native apps rather than on mobile web. Mobile web is the wild west in terms of experience and more of a stepping stone until you get frustrated enough to download the app or ditch that service altogether if they don't have a native app. Mobile web has lost many of its benefits due to some very distinct reasons. Lack a stable Internet connection? Native wins Home…

> Lack a stable Internet connection? Native wins HTML5 offline storage should let a mobile-oriented site store a fair bit of data offline, to avoid having to go out and fetch everything anew all the time. It's just that few web developers design that way b/c we've all been spoiled by desktop users' broadband connections. > Home screen apps vs Bookmarks in browser? Native wins My Galaxy S3 lets me set bookmarks for si…

However, most people have their phones on them everywhere, so no need to worry about the "anywhere".

Re: The Decline of the Mobile Web

#30

Post by gitah » Mon, Apr 07, 2014, 7:50 PM UTC

msvan wrote: post #22

fidotron wrote: post #10

I'm of the view this is a lot of fuss about nothing. Big deal if people prefer apps over the "open" web. The reality is a large number of people use the likes of MSN and Yahoo as web home pages, and unless you were linked to from them they were unlikely to find you. The app launcher situation is an improvement over that. The big problem is that dipping your toes into something via a website (assuming you don't hit an…

It's not a scrapeability problem; it's a freedom problem. The article mentions this. Why should the app stores decide what can and cannot be on our phones, and why should they add a 30% tax on everything that is published on mobile? There are a lot of claims that the tech industry is disrupting the big music and books businesses, for the benefit of consumers, but these new players are acting like the middlemen they a…

Apple and Google gets to act as middle men because their app store provides value to the end user.

Users are free to use the mobile browser on their phones but most of the time native apps are a better experience. And guess who develops the framework and tools to create these value-adding native apps.

This is the free market at work.