Latest Articles by ronan
The web is Doom
April 19, 2016, by ronan
In July 2015 I suggested that the average web page weight would equal that of the Doom install image in about 7 months time. In about 7 months average web page size will be same as Doom install image. Well done us! Onwards & upwards!... Read More
That shrinking feeling—Apple losing dominance in global web traffic
December 9, 2015, by ronan
For many years now iOS has led Android in web traffic in many countries around the world, even in countries where Android devices are more popular. There have been several explanations proffered for this... Read More
Bluetooth beacons beckon bold builders
October 28, 2015, by ronan
Bluetooth beacons have always been an alluring prospect for developers. Small, cheap and with a long battery life, they brim with potential save for one fatal flaw: they generally require users to have an app installed on their device to be noticed. Without a beacon-aware app, their presence generally goes unnoticed entirely... Read More
Geofencing, web push and progressive apps are taking webapps to a new place
June 19, 2015, by ronan
There’s a lot going on these days in the world of webapps. Most recently, the W3C published the Geofencing API first public working draft. This API allows webapps to register for notifications when the user’s device enters defined geographical regions, assuming that the user grants permission. This enables a whole new class of webapps to be built and follows the recent rollout of the web push API to Chrome Mobile on Android... Read More
Measuring page weight
May 11, 2015, by ronan
It used to be so easy. Measuring the weight of a web page in the early days of the web was merely a matter of waiting for the page to finish loading and then counting up the size of its constituent resources... Read More
Understanding web page weight
April 16, 2015, by ronan
Page weight is the gravity of the web—a relentless downwards drag, ever present and utterly unavoidable. Understanding it is a critical aspect of a successful web strategy. We’ll be doing a series of articles on page weight covering background, measurement and reduction. In this article, part I of the series, we’ll talk about the importance of page weight... Read More
A view from China – big is big
December 31, 2014, by ronan
I recently spent a week in China talking about [url=http://deviceatlas.com]DeviceAtlas[/url] and [url=http://gomobi.info]goMobi[/url] to various resellers and government officials. On these kinds of business trips, it’s always interesting to see what kind of mobile devices are in use. My travels were confined to Beijing but is nonetheless worth noting observations from there... Read More
Android: platform of the next decade or revenue backwater?
March 27, 2014, by ronan
This week was an interesting one for the perennial Android vs. iOS debate. Horace Dediu kicked things off on Sunday with a few infographics depicting the dominant smartphone ecosystems: This was picked up on by Cennydd Bowles and a sparkling debate ensued... Read More
A week with Windows Phone 8
January 27, 2014, by ronan
Part of my job is to know what is going on in the mobile space. With this in mind, I swop phones constantly—from low-end feature phones to the flagship devices for each smartphone OS. It’s been a while since I tried a Windows Phone (most recently a Lumia 510) so I decided it was high time to look again. Having experienced the lower end of this platform this time I tried out a Lumia 1020, the current Nokia flagship... Read More
