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from the why-get-the-milk-for-free-when-you-can-buy-a-cow dept.
The Guardian has an article about the usage stats of apps and the Web on mobile devices.
The prediction that mobile web use would overtake apps has been disproved by data from analytics firm Flurry ... The idea that people will shift from using native apps on their smartphones to using HTML5 websites offering the same functionality hasn't played out ...
They don't say where that prediction came from, but I could have told them it was dubious years ago. For most users, apps are simply more convenient. I'd bet that a lot more Android and iOS users know how to find their app list than know how to find their Web bookmarks.
But personally I go to significant lengths to avoid apps that I think should just be websites instead. One reason is security; I don't want to be running someone else's code just so that I can read their text. But is my attitude correct? With web browsers having so much functionality these days, perhaps using a dedicated newspaper app with just the "full network access" permission would be less of a security risk than visiting that same newspaper's website using Firefox for Android, for example? Bear in mind the latter also has permissions for the camera, microphone, GPS, NFC, device accounts, 'run at startup', etc.
Also from the article:
For Google, the indifference of smartphone users to the mobile web in favour of apps presents a problem because in general it cannot follow users' activity inside apps ... The search company has begun an initiative offering links to in-app content for Android developers which it will be able to index.
Is avoiding Google another reason I should learn to love apps instead of the Web?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday April 02 2014, @07:13PM
Yeah, I'm pretty much in agreement there.
While Firefox on Android might have more permissions enabled, that doesn't mean that a particular site will have access to them at all. Web browsers have their own security too.
Just about everything online can be tracked anyways, so that is not a Google centric issue for the consumer. I have a page open right now with over 200 ads blocked, and a combination of 12 different trackers, beacons, and widgets blocked. Google is responsible for a fraction of that.
I would much rather have a single app that has security wholly unrelated to the Android permissions paradigm and connects up to resources over the network for simple consumption.
The biggest issue you already mentioned. HTML5 works perfectly fine and we can create wonderful applications using it. Mobile SUCKS as a user interface and cripples what you can do with the web period.
I don't care what people say. That goofy little stupid screen on most smartphones, especially the tiny iPhone screen, isn't suited for anything other than very simplistic information presentation, and throw information density out the window. You really do need a mobile specific site design for your website and that's not as easy as it sounds. I'm sure others will chime in about how it is. If it really was, then websites would be better at it. Obviously, it ain't, so it's not.
Unless you are a teenager with tiny fingers and 20/20 vision you need something else, and native apps on mobile devices are typically much higher quality interfaces than browsing web sites.
You must have good eyesight still to use desktop mode from a smartphone and be able to see anything, let alone touch the tiny buttons :)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 02 2014, @07:24PM
> You must have good eyesight still to use desktop mode from a smartphone and :)
> be able to see anything, let alone touch the tiny buttons
That requires a lot of zooming and scrolling (on the phone only, since my tablet has an HD screens), but on average less than the tedious linear mobile versions of the same sites. YMMV.
What doesn't vary is that the desktop version of the same site essentially always has more comprehensive information, and less "clicks" to get to it.