Comments on: A World Where Browsers Are A Thing Of The Past

By: Manish Bhargava

Manish Bhargava — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:46:31 +0000

In reply to Bram.

@Bram – If your competition has an app, one should explore how your target market is using it. It might give your customer enough reason to ditch you and choose your competition over you. With regards to ‘Cool’ factor, I am in a business of building web sites for law firms. Imagine the vanity factor of having an app for a law firm. They can have a QR code on their business card. It gives a perception out there that you are on the cutting edge of technology. What you offer within a app is a different story and a challenge by itself. I agree that cost of building an app is a consideration. I am seeing that now a days its becoming pretty inexpensive to build an App. If you want to customize is considerable then its a different story.

By: Mike Dawson

Mike Dawson — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:34:09 +0000

I agree with Farrah. I think it will take a while (a long time) before browsers become ‘a thing of the past’ redundant (if at all they do). I think most people prefer to use an app instead of using a browser when on a cellphone or a tablet because it is more convenient. On cellular devices, an app makes it easier to accomplish a task – and less time-consuming – than firing up the browser, typing the address and having to settle for pages that aren’t optimized for small screens. For instance this is precisely why I use the Twitter app on iPhone, instead of using Twitter on Safari. Having said that, from a business perspective, I do think business should look into getting apps developed for their businesses, for the reasons stated in the article above.

By: Harlott

Harlott — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:58:12 +0000

Very interesting point indeed. I’m sure the day when mobile users dominate PC users is not much long away from now. My major concern as a webmaster is, does mobile traffic give much conversions?

By: Farrah

Farrah — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:41:26 +0000

I don’t think we’ll be doing away with browsers any time soon, partly because I think there needs to be a transition between computers and other devices before that happens, and even then, many people prefer to have a customized browser on their phone. I think for people that have used computers all their life it will be a little easier to adapt to new technology, but the people who had to transition from paper to computers probably won’t want to transition again.

By: Bram

Bram — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:20:43 +0000

Interesting article and thanks for alerting me to the RSS feed but the advice to people to build apps seems very lightly given.

That your competition or supplier has an app is no reason at all to make an app as well. Maybe one of the worst reasons possible.

The cool factor is also a terrible reason.

Nowhere you mention the cost of developing an app or the how terrible it is for your reputation if the app is bad.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:06:28 +0000

You make a VERY good point here about the current shift going on with apps and browsing. I guess I had not really thought about it before, but there’s no doubt there’s a lot less random browsing going on as people have focused apps that lead them right where they want to go time after time.

I’m not sure any of my businesses would benefit strongly from an app, but it’s certainly something to consider as the digital landscape continues to evolve. Given enough time I’m quite sure that the methods of finding and using quality digital content is going to shift quite dramatically.