Comments on: Mobile Applications, RIP

By: mathiastck

mathiastck — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:43:57 +0000

I loved the original article, the charts are great too, a very convincing argument was made. Now is a great time to be doing web apps for phones. A rapidly increasing number of phones are running the same browser as the Iphone, webkit, javascriptcore, etc.

A whole of products could be done as a web app, or a client app.

Gaming will always be focused on client applications. There is a market for free web games.. but electronic arts and vivendi will still rake money in hand over fist selling installable games.

Media is going to be a gray area. Many mobile browser don’t support sound, so any rich media will actually occur outside the browser, either in a native media player or in custom client code made by content providers.

By: dynaMo13

dynaMo13 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:48:04 +0000

Wow, I am all over the place on that previous comments, I wish there was a way to edit the comment.

“It would be great if iTunes does for apps what it has done for songs.”

By: dynaMo13

dynaMo13 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:44:40 +0000

Strictly from a user perspective, I recently switched over from Blackberry to iPhone recently and I really miss the native Facebook, IM and other apps. Sure iPhone-centric Meebo, Facebook and other apps are great but when I click on those icons on my iPhone, it takes a good few seconds before I get to see the information. On the Blackberry they are constantly (or on a set interval) updated so when I click on the app, I can instantly see what I want to see. This is the instant gratification culture. I don’t want to blame the slow at&t network because I see this problem even on a very fast Wi-Fi network. The latency issue will haunt web apps on the phone, unless some browser modifications are made so that these web based apps can go and ping the servers behind the scenes. Not to mention as others pointed out, offline data access is another feature that is lacking in web apps for the mobile platform. A Google Gears for mobile would be nice as I have the 16 GB version, I am willing to dedicate 25% of that for app data storage. Of course, Flash Mobile and may be Air Mobile are other possible avenues to resolve this issue too.

From the business standpoint, I understand the frustations of mobile app developers, some details have leaked out about Apple upcoming iPhone SDK but I am really interested in the revenue model for app developers and how it will be sold via iTunes. I am excited about seeing iTunes as a platform for software delivery. It would be great if iTunes does for apps what it has done for apps. But it will be interesting to see the busines model. One thing is for sure as much as Apple will charge to host/sell your apps, you are bound to get lots of free marketing and popularity if you have a hit app on your hands (the analogy to songs is really intriguing here).

Here is a question for discussion, do you think Adobe should come out a Flash software distribution platform like iTunes to sell mobile Flash (or Air) widgets/apps for mobile devices?

By: Charles

Charles — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:37:51 +0000

FUD. Mobile apps are definitely not dead, just maybe old formats (Palm, Symbian, etc). I’ve seen some Flash apps here in Seattle that are going strong, and they work cross-platform with touchscreens, numpads and keyboards with almost no extra work. Once Flash for Mobile 3 hits, they’ll be even more content-rich.
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Java has more cross-compatibility issues, but Java won’t die for a long time (too many evangelists and college students — oh yeah and Android). Windows-based handhelds are widespread, and Linux/iPhone variants are hot on their heels, desktop apps are being ported to handhelds faster than ever.
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International mobile data prices can be nasty outside of the US (especially when roaming), so a download-once and play-forever app will retain value until data prices drop sharply — not to mention people who like to take their handheld off-grid, for GPS, trail maps, photos, voice recorders, the list goes on…
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Right now it’s much more difficult to develop RIAs that work identically across mobile browsers than to create a Flash or Java app, especially with any kind of animated or pretty graphics.
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Of course a former Palm VP would say this, he needs an explanation both for the past and for the new business model he’s creating.

By: Aquarion

Aquarion — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:40:48 +0000

This is a reasonably typical US-centric point of view. Very few places in the world have Telecom companies who lock down their phones to the point of requiring an expensive certification process for each new application version like the US does. And, believe it or not, there are whole other countries out there where you can download an application that you like to a phone that you’ve bought and pay connection charges for.

A whole new world.

By: Mark Holton

Mark Holton — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:12:20 +0000

very interesting insights… it seems iPhone web app development is the safest way to go…