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

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

#61

Post by tluyben2 »

michaelpinto wrote: post #9
danmaz74 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer and consumer, I think that browsers are better for most use cases, where user interaction is simple enough and web technologies are more than up to the task. But this technical consideration could be trumped by business considerations: making people pay for "mere websites" is more difficult than making them pay for apps, and if ad blocking really becomes mainstream, this could be enough reason for prod…

You know I wonder if in the long term if blocking ads may improve the open web experience vs. native apps which may become cluttered with ads?

At least for most usable apps with ads there is the in-app option to switch them off. I don't mind that for an app that is good ; on the other hand, I would've paid for that app as well in the first place.

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

#63

Post by p4bl0 »

no_gravity wrote: post #6

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…

I think you are right. And I'll add that on smartphones that are in the low- and mid-range segment, mobile version of websites are often way better than mobile apps.

For example on my smartphone (a Wiko Cink Slim), I uninstalled the Twitter and Facebook apps because mobile.twitter.com and m.facebook.com are much quicker and responsive than the Android applications. They also do not request as many permissions, and are more featureful (e.g., Facebook chat works on m.facebook.com while it isn't included in Facebook's app, and rather requires an additional very intrusive shitty app).

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

#64

Post by marcosdumay »

dombili wrote: post #46
aviraldg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> That number probably won't go any higher over time either because Android's update cycle is a mess.

What? People don't upgrade to an older phone. That number has nowhere to go but highter.

The upgrade cycle being a mess just make this take more time.

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

#65

Post by Bahamut »

millstone wrote: post #38
1971genocide wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also VLC player. The thing is all those things will eventually migrate to the web. Right now the web has so much potential and those pieces of software have a small market and that market is pretty saturated. Once we do everything we can do with the web then we will move into domains that have incumbents I would say Facebook is much more useful to society then Audio Production.

The web is a cesspool. Its monetization is so twisted and unnatural, with individual users worth next to nothing. Companies engage in all sorts of dark patterns, tracking and other scummy bullshit to try to squeeze out an extra tenth of a penny per user. Hell, click on the link to this article and Amazon, LinkedIn, Google, and a dozen others all get to know what you just read! I don't share the excitement about bring…

Native apps can be even worse - they control all behavior to a more powerful degree. The bloat and battery & data drainage is why I install as few mobile apps as possible.

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

#66

Post by marcosdumay »

tluyben2 wrote: post #53
pjc50 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the early days of webmail, when IE6 was new and we had 28.8k modems, someone almost certainly said that. 20 years ago we used Eudora, PINE, Netscape's mail client, or (if you were really unfortunate) Outlook Express.

Pine -> Mutt -> Webmail for me. Those desktop clients were(are?) horrible. For iPhone/iPad I do like Inbox though.

POP was horrible, IMAP made things much better, but the web clients had already won.

A modern desktop client is much better than a modern webmail client when it's available. It's interesting that desktop clients have been continualy improving, while web clients have been continualy getting worse.

Anyway, both have their use.

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

#67

Post by LoSboccacc »

arrrg wrote: post #54
no_gravity wrote: post #6

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…

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble. I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones),…

poeple especially don't need apps of 150mb+ each, and premium phones come with limited storage forcing costly upgrades on top of an hefty price.

the only competitive advantage for apps is push notifications, and the sooner browsers and phones can build that into a standard the better (including opening the right page when clicking on a specific service notification)

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

#69

Post by ryannevius »

tluyben2 wrote: post #55
vbezhenar wrote: post #2

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 try to find an app for things I regularly (daily) use. Some things have excellent apps which far surpass the web experience for me (like Reddit, Linkedin, Inbox, Skype) while others are crap (all HN apps I tried, including the paid ones, Hipchat (what a piece of...), almost all airline apps). But when the experience of the app surpasses the web, it does so by such a stretch that when I start the web version on my d…

Not sure if you have an Android device...but have you tried the Yarn app (Hacker News)? It's the only HN app that is usable for me.

_This comment sent using Yarn for HN_

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

#70

Post by tdkl »

Bahamut wrote: post #65
millstone wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web is a cesspool. Its monetization is so twisted and unnatural, with individual users worth next to nothing. Companies engage in all sorts of dark patterns, tracking and other scummy bullshit to try to squeeze out an extra tenth of a penny per user. Hell, click on the link to this article and Amazon, LinkedIn, Google, and a dozen others all get to know what you just read! I don't share the excitement about bring…

Native apps can be even worse - they control all behavior to a more powerful degree. The bloat and battery & data drainage is why I install as few mobile apps as possible.

You didn't state on which mobile OS you have this experience ?
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