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

venturebeat.com

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

#41
> The problem is terminology and the exact focus of each study. Morgan Stanley’s study [browser > app] is focused on unique visitors — calling it, somewhat misleadingly, “traffic” — while comScore’s report [app > browser] is focused on actual user time spent.

Explains the surprising result.

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

#42
post #34

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 believe that mobile browser will beat apps, like it did on desktop. So now I have to "upgrade" my browser (which is basically almost a VM) that uses 1GB of RAM to run that To-do app over a series of tubes which are metered and analysed. We've really done some progress here yeah.

On Firefox OS and to a large extent on the Ubuntu phone, most apps are web based apps.

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

#43
post #31

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…

> 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. On Android.

Not anymore.

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

#44
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

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?

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

#45

I find is to so much easier to just type out the URL of what app I need - facebook, reddit, youtube, etc - Its just faster to let google auto-complete then having to browse my own phone for the app that I need. typing the letter "f" is faster than exiting the browser and using my OWN EYES to browse left to right row by row the apps on my phone. How cave-manish.

On the iPhone, it's easy to search for an app with a quick swipe down. As for cavemanish, some might argue "clicking a large icon" is less cavemanish than having to resort to something as unnatural as a keyboard.

And in iOS 9 you get Siri suggestions, so most likely you won't even need to type anything.

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

#46
post #31

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. On Android.

Not anymore.

I wouldn't so firmly say "not anymore" when only 15% of Android users[1] are on the latest version of Android almost a year after its release. That number probably won't go any higher over time either because Android's update cycle is a mess.

[1] https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

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

#47
post #42
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe that mobile browser will beat apps, like it did on desktop. So now I have to "upgrade" my browser (which is basically almost a VM) that uses 1GB of RAM to run that To-do app over a series of tubes which are metered and analysed. We've really done some progress here yeah.

On Firefox OS and to a large extent on the Ubuntu phone, most apps are web based apps.

Both of which have really tiny userbases and aren't desktop.

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

#48

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…

> 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.

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

#49

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…

> 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 their core functions).

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