Why Android Will Win the Mobile App Wars

http://useragent.metapede.com/2009/08/11/why-android-will-win-the-mobile-app-wars/

by dannyr • 17 years ago

6 4 17 years ago

useragent.metapede.com

kasunh• 17 years ago

Rather than on open vs closed, native apps vs web based apps app war win will be decided solely on the number of users a given mobile platform has. For that some android manufacturer would have to stand up to design an iphone killer.

stcredzero• 17 years ago

An easy way to get an iPhone killer:

    1) Get a darn good smartphone
    2) Offer phone & network that *doesn't suck*

1 - is out there already. 2 - The carriers are basically shooting themselves in the foot! Apple carries AT&T. All the others flounder because they don't have Apple to carry them.

silencio• 17 years ago

I think the author forgets that Apple initially told all us developers to forget the idea of a native iPhone app and just deal with having only webapps for the iPhone until iPhone OS 2.0 was released.

I think the author also forgets the 30% cut, while making Apple a small profit, is also about paying for hosting the app, running the app store, providing limited support to users, credit card fees, and other such overhead. If Apple really desperately wanted that 30% cut, Mobile Safari would not be supporting HTML 5 features like geolocation that make it easier for webapps to access the same information native apps can. I expect to see further improvements to Mobile Safari that make it even easier to take advantage of the iPhone's hardware.

Plus, there is a subscription model for the app store that is not news, but is not yet commonly found on the app store yet. One example would be some of the monthly fee-based GPS navigation apps. The same model also allows for adding more content to applications for an additional fee.

I don't disagree that the app store is broken in some ways and needs fixed (wait, I don't see most consumers actually caring about it though...), but the argument is presented without sufficient research on the part of the author, even taking into consideration the date on which it was posted.

jcl• 17 years ago

I don't understand the article's logic. It starts by describing App Store complaints, then it goes on to argue that Android will win over the iPhone because the future of phone applications is web apps... while ignoring that iPhone is no more restrictive toward web apps than Android is.

The assumption that Android will eventually expose all of the phone hardware to web apps is questionable, as is the assumption that Apple will not modify their platform to stay competitive.

It would have been better to simply argue that the App Store will eventually become irrelevant, and leave out the whole iPhone vs. Android argument.

Why Android Will Win the Mobile App Wars

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