Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering vice president and developer evangelist told the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco last week that the Web had won, according to the Financial Times. Google believes that cell-phone users will get their information and entertainment through browsers in future, rather than from downloaded applications.
He said even Google was not rich enough to port all of the different mobile applications from Apple’s App Store [which only work on Apple’s phones] to BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android, Nokia and all other commonly-used phones.
“What we clearly see happening is a move to incredibly powerful browsers,” he said. “Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning.”
“We believe the Web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing,” he added.
Gundotra claimed that even Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, had said “Build for the Web,” when the iPhone was launched, but the idea had met with resistance from developers at the time.
The FT had no response from Apple – so we await opinion from the other side.
Google’s comments come as Apple announced 1.5 billion downloads from its app store and GetJar announced 500 million downloads from its store. Unlike Apple (and copycat stores from other handset vendors), GetJar provides applications that work on different types of handset.
While it makes good journalist copy to play off the mobile Web (Web-based applications) against app stores, some experts such as the MMA boss Mike Wehrs do not actually see them as competitors. See his answer in this interview.
mobiThinking welcomes Google’s comments. It is time for a grown-up debate: Are downloadable apps and the mobile Web competitors? What are the pros and cons with each from a marketer’s and consumer’s point of view? Gaze into your crystal ball and tell us what the future holds. Comment below or email editor (at) mobiThinking.com.
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