Mobile apps must die

<i>Maybe</i>.<p>Why is it so hard to imagine a world where we have both? I don't use Google's dedicated iOS app because www.google.com happens to load just fine in Mobile Safari. I <i>do</i> use the iOS Maps application because maps.google.com doesn't work as well as I'd like in the aforementioned browser.<p>We have to let go of this notion that for <i>web apps</i> to win, <i>mobile apps</i> have to lose (or vice versa). [1]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.edibleapple.com/2009/08/06/when-apple-and-microsoft-made-amends-sort-of-video/" rel="nofollow">http://www.edibleapple.com/2009/08/06/when-apple-and-microso...</a>

I think I'm paying a price for having a linkbait title. I don't honestly think this is a web vs native issue at all. I think that native has had too much power and that apps 'must die' as they suck up all the oxygen. It blinds people from seeing alternatives. That's my point, we have to be able to explore alternatives and the current native app silo approach will make JIT interaction impossible.<p>As to the people on this thread that think JIT interaction is a privacy nightmare, i never said these things would install automatically, this has to offer itself when the user requests it, i.e. I want to look at THIS bustop now. All I'm talking about is reducing the pain threshold to getting to functionality. That's all. It's not as sinister as you make it sound.

If there's a reasonable conclusion to be made from app overload it's that apps must die. Web, desktop and mobile apps, the way they're presented are a pain for the end user. He has to think in terms of apps, not in terms of functionality.<p>Apple's Siri is a good example. You're using many apps simultaneously through one interface - calendar, weather, alarms, maps, etc. You don't have to worry about how someone decided to bundle functionality into apps, you just access the functionality.<p>If this new genre of apps appears it doesn't sound like the user experience will be improved.

I don't really see his conclusion following from his statements.<p>Also, what phone doesn't have a search feature now to find the app you're looking for?

&#62; too much trouble to organize &#38; maintain<p>I disagree. That's a solved problem. The App Store and Android Market both notify when there are updates and it's very painless to apply them.<p>The real problem is discovery. Apple and Google both set the precedent for crapware while building up their markets and it hasn't gotten any better. What we need is access to curated collections outside the respective app stores. This won't happen until Apple unbinds their iDevices from the App Store and Android goes a bit further.<p>&#62; apps magically appearing on your phone<p>There is no way that anyone can make that sound at all reasonable. Security &#38; privacy demand that, at a minimum, the user be allowed to reject the installation of a native app.<p>The privacy-destroying aspects of what he describes are beyond terrifying.

A QR Code and a simple mobile website, isn't that what the author is asking for? Stores or areas offering something to a crowd (Where sharing a physical code with everyone seems inefficient) can set up a WiFi network and redirect users to the store's website.

Apps essentially exist because of the limitations of the mobile OS - or, rather, the browser of the mobile OS - to access web content. As the web is changing and mobile devices are progressing (from a hardware and software perspective), apps are really becoming redundant unless they are embedded as part of the natural interface. Certain pieces of functionality make sense to keep "app-ified", but others i think will converge to become part of natural interfaces, much like what has happened to twitter with iOS5 and facebook across all mobile OS's.

A wonderful article, which must awaken some dreamers; majority of mobile app developers just lose time in hope of earning money through mobile app sales, because their revenues dont cover their lost time and development costs.<p>Mobile app development is fragmented, cumbersome, ugly and I bet in few years most apps will be abandoned. In addition most apps I bothered to try were not even worth the download. People will stop buying apps at some point, and unfortunately a lot of development effort will be lost.

I can't help but be suspicious this is a propaganda push to try and move people off devices competing with MS.<p>I never read .net magazine even when I had a subscription, theres something about the tone of the magazine that rubs me up the wrong way, and its in this article as well.<p>Not sure how to describe it but I always get a feeling like I'm dealing with a shady street vendor and I have to watch every moment to make sure I'm not being conned. Like buying off pikeys in the UK, you just know something isn't legit.

<i>Google has publicly said that if they just reduce the load speed of the Google.com home page by TENTHS of a second, usage noticeably improves.</i><p>Anyone have a link for this claim? I'd be really interested in reading more about what GOOG found... I probably missed a flurry of remarkable discussion around this that I'd love to catch up on.

A terrible, terrible article.<p>- App organisation problem If there are too many apps on the device for the user to handle, there are other solutions. For example sorting them by how often they are used (iPhone does this already on the task bar)<p>The rest of the article is even worse...

Sorry that this isn't related to the article text at all, but I have been noticing this <i>a lot</i> recently. It's a web design thing. It's about margin-left.<p>Have one that isn't zero.<p>Please. I don't want to resize my browser (currently 925px, which is reasonable) to make your content readable.<p>This is what I'm talking about: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Dlcgg.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/Dlcgg.png</a>

Imagine an article that asserted "Desktop apps must die!" to be replaced by web apps, naturally.<p>Sure, organizing mobile apps is a pain. I agree. But I can't tell you the number of times I've known there was a website that had some web app, and had a heck of a time trying to find it.<p>URLs, in people's minds, are very ephemeral... while apps are more tangible in a way.<p>I think for some applications the web delivery mechanism will be superior, while for other applications, native apps will always be superior.<p>Is the Facebook iPhone app a web app or a mobile app, or a hybrid? Facebook gives people the choice.