How The (Mobile) Web Will Be Won
Imagine it’s February 2012 and you want to buy movie tickets, research a new restaurant, or check out the weekend weather forecast. Ignoring that the 2012 version of the iPad will probably be free, able to read your mind and enable you transcend time and space, how will you access the mobile web in this not-too-distant future?
Given the explosive growth of mobile apps for iPhone (100,000+), Android (20,000+) and others, it’s easy to assume that no matter what you want to do in the future, there will indeed be “an app for that”.
Not so fast says Richard MacManus (@rrw) over at ReadWriteWeb. MacManus references a recent study by mobile search company, Taptu, which predicts that browser-based mobile sites will win out over mobile apps built specifically for mobile platforms like iPhone and Blackberry. And why does Taptu believe this and what are the implications of this prediction?
Taptu says that the increasing sophistication of mobile browsers is one reason why browser-based mobile sites will flourish. In particular, it points to increasing support for HTML 5.
According to Taptu, “it’s getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps.” Taptu also points to increasing usage of open standard APIs, enabling Mobile Web developers to access “deeper device functions such as geolocation.”
MacManus offers the following disclosure:
We should note that Taptu is mostly a browser-based service, although it does offer apps for iPhone and other platforms too. But it obviously has a big stake in the success of the “touchscreen mobile web.”
Check out the full Taptu report here or the related presentation. I’m curious to hear what the mobile-philes and software savants think — Will mobile apps go the way of VCRs, dial-up access and IE6? Or will they continue to offer a richer experience than mobile browsers can and rule the mobile web? Weigh in and be heard.
