Does the web suck (on mobile devices)?
In The web sucks. Browsers need to innovate., the author (the co-founder of posterous) compares the types of apps found on the iPad and iPhone with what is on the Web and comes to the conclusion that the web sucks and we will soon “see a decline in web traffic and search in the coming years”. He proposes that browser vendors break from following standards, develop their own APIs, and begin innovating on top of these APIs. While I think that this is a very shortsighted recommendation, I think he makes a very interesting observation: does the web suck (on mobile devices)?
Better UI in the form of proprietary technology has always been around. It is not unique to the iPad and iPhone. What is different about mobile app development is that web browsers were really bad on mobile devices, and apps were really good. This huge disparity in quality was brand new, and really drove proprietary mobile app development. Not only were the browsers bad, but developers did not target these devices, so viewing websites was horrible as well. So, apps filled the quality gap and became wildly popular.
But is this success short lasting or sustainable? To answer this question, we need to look at why web apps won over desktop apps in the first place. When it comes down to it, web apps won out because they were open and connected. Their openness allowed them to run anywhere making it easy to access the service from any device. And, because they were open search engines could easily find and index data making it a breeze to get information fast. In addition, web apps did not stand alone. They were connected to each other making it easy for a user to transition from one site to another. Mobile apps, on the other hand, are not open and not connected. The portability of the devices make them as available as web apps, however, their closed nature makes them a lot less connected than web apps. I think this is where mobile apps fall short. In the long run, we have the better UI of mobile apps versus the openness and connectivity of web apps.
What is really interesting about this article is the new perspective of the iPhone age. Prior to the iPhone, everyone’s first source of information and entertainment was the web. Now, it is shifting to mobile apps. I personally believe that this was due to a deficiency in mobile browser vendors and developers to provide a good experience on the web. But, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues. I personally think that in the end, the same advantages that allowed web application development to overtake desktop development (openness, connectivity, etc.) will win out over proprietary mobile app development. But, only time will tell.