The Death of Mobile Apps
Contents
- Introduction
- Development Costs for Every Platform
- Apps Are Usually Behind
- The Old Desktop Application Analogy
- HTML 5 Changes Everything
- Faster, Easier, Cheaper Localization
- Better SEO
- Conclusion
I still remember the first time I uttered the phrase 'Death of Mobile Apps' during a trip to a technology conference in the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall of 2014. It raised more than a few eyebrows. People thought I was either joking or delusional. They shook their heads and shrugged the idea off. Less than a year later, however, there's a paradigm shift under way and more businesses are generating more traffic through their browser applications rather than mobile apps. More and more users are realizing like I did that having to constantly update the mobile apps that clutter their mobile screens is a nuisance and waste of valuable bandwidth. Couple this with recent revelations that mobile app downloads are easily manipulated and can expose users to data thieves, and I think my seemingly crazy prediction is coming true: mobile app development has peaked and is about to head into decline.
Don't get me wrong: there are plenty of good mobile apps that will stand the test of time, that consumers want or even need on their mobile devices, but the number of apps being created and published around the world will fall drastically. Most of them will be replaced with browser-based applications that update automatically without eating any of a user's bandwidth and whose icons won't muddle users' screen.
