apps vs browser
TRANSCRIPT
Take 2
Jon, would you like to present with me at
Cannes on mobile this year?
That would be awesome! Thanks
Simon…
Great…in the first hour I am going to cover
everything known to man about mobile…
…what would you like to do in the 2nd hour?
…and btw can you make it interactive as
well please with no wireless or 3G?
For me, Wired Magazine and a gadget…
Source: Wired, July 2010
How awesome is this picture?
How awesome is this gadget?
Does the rise of the App
spell the end for
the Browser?
+44 762 480 6527Text: APPS
Text: BROWSER
Or
Text: NOTSURE
I will present the counter argument too…just in case
When you see the angry lady – duck!
So let us begin
Since the beginning of the
internet…
+ Most of us have experienced the
internet in an entirely browser-
centric way, interacting with
websites
It looked a bit like this to begin with…
Then it looked like this…
Now, increasingly it looks like this
But the building block of the mobile
web isn’t the website…
It’s the app…
Using Twitter?
There’s an 81.43% chance you are using an
app
Source: Twitstat
Established web-friendly firms are finding that consumers prefer engaging with them on apps…
…but it’s not just pure plays. High street banks and supermarkets are seeing it too.
“Apps on mobile devices may soon overtake the web itself as the main platform for consumer software…”Source: Wired, July 2010Tim O’Reilly’s
chin…of Web2.0 fame
So certain are you Mr O’Reilly?
Estim
ated
Glo
bal I
nsta
ll Ba
se,
2013
PCs
Smartphone & browser
equipped phones
Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2010 and Beyond: A New Balance
1.82bn1.78b
n
We’re addicted to them…
…they’re not called
Crackberries for nothing!
But why the app
and not the browser?
Hardware specific apps are more tightly integrated into the device than a browser
“But a browser can do some / all of those things”
So hardware integration can be achieved in a browser – but its rare.
Mobile web usability [generally] sucks:
•Small screens•Awkward input•Download delays•Poor site design
So says Jakob Nielsen…and he knows a thing or two about usability!!!
Apps mitigate a lot of these issues
But if the sites are properly designed for the mobile “touch web” then they can be used in browsers
Taptu provide mobile touch web search functions
This data seems to suggest that the mobile “touch” web is going to outpace the development of apps…but is it really?
Data hungry functions are better suited to an app environment.
If e-mail could be adequately handled in the browser, why do Blackberries exist (and command such share)?
Ummm…
Apps are less connection dependent
Instapaper
Jamie Oliver
Wired
Ever lost these?
Search is stupid – you know what you want, you just don’t know where to find it
The browser is predicated on the idea of seeking what you want on the web.
But we are moving from a search-based web to a web that delivers what we want based on our expressed and implied preferences
Pulse News Reader is an example of the next generation of apps delivering info to us rather than us having to go and find it
Siri in the US is an app that you can speak to ask it to do things – like a PA
•“What’s a good sushi restaurant near here?”•“Book me a table please Siri”
But you can do that stuff in the browser too
Yes, of course. But these apps
are just not being
developed for the mobile web.
Why is that?
Supply-side factors
An almost limitless supply of ad inventory pushes advertising CPMs through the floor and makes it difficult to make money from content online
Mr Murdoch has long struggled to make money from internet content – so now he’s locked his away behind a paywall
Content = Free
Why?
Why should publishers produce content for [almost] free?
…and the end of free
But now Apple have created the ultimate paywall…
…and so publishers celebrate and
embrace apps for their ability to
monetise content
To date:
10,000 iPad apps
225,000 apps in Apple’s App Store
5bn downloads +
50,000 Google Android apps
And that’s without advertising revenue…which is coming
And that’s before this lot get in on the act…which they already are
And the big boys are gearing up to take their advertising dollars off them too…
$10 CPM
AND
$2 CPCMinimum investment $1m
Source: Wall Street Journal
60% is going back to the app developer!
Which isn’t going to help the mobile web development market place much
<insert mournful eerie wind sound here>
Hang on – I saw a Google logo back there. Their whole business model is predicated on the searchable web
Yup, Google have got a substantial vested interest in continuing to perpetuate a searchable browser-based web
But they can afford to bet on all the
horses in this race. Wouldn’t you if you
were Google?
The stock market also give us some insight into the way this is going to go?
Markets factor future profit expectations into stock prices and market capitalisations
“Nom nom nom”
But it is down to the product…
Or?
5bn+ downloads
It’s both, but undoubtedly the App Store is helping Apple’s market capitalisation
“The global market for mobile applications is expected to more than triple from just under $10 billion at the end of 2009 to $32 billion in 2015”
“In April 2009, Apple had 35% of the download market but only 1% of the mobile device install base”
An Apple dictatorship cannot be good for the Web
I’m a fanboy but couldn’t
agree more…
But it’s not just Apple
100,000 activations
per day
50,000 apps in the
Android store
Another big Google bet
Google TV will leverage the Android Marketplace
Another bigger bet still
And hardware manufacturers are
jumping aboard too
Samsung’s new range of 3D TVs
come with their own app store
And there are a lot of TVs in the world
So, that’s the argument from both sides…
Conclusion
Volume
Price
Demand
Supply
Ultimately the laws of consumer demand and content supply will determine which is the preferred method for accessing internet content
My prediction
The results
A parting thought
What is the browser if not an
app?
Enjoy CannesJon Wade – Digital Strategy Director, UK
[email protected]: @oo0x0oo