There’s an interesting article at the GSMA on "The benefits of native versus web apps". Although  the article mentions little about the ‘benefits’, it talks more about how apps are becoming more popular than the web…

"Native apps are already capturing 50 percent of all data volume, stealing share from the web browser"

We are told that…

"App stores have radically changed the way of downloading and using applications"

More specifically, I think app stores have provided an incentive for developers to develop for mobile. Making money and/or being discovered is a powerful pull. The ironic thing is that with so many apps, their price is tending towards zero and the chance of being discovered is also becoming smaller and smaller.

However, there’s no reason why web apps couldn’t be sold via a ‘web app store’. A simple username/password authentication scheme and usage tracking to prevent sharing of authenication details, might allow apps to be ’sold’. I think there might be opportunities for a third party to create an ‘web app store’ for cross platform web apps.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2011 at 3:07 pm and is filed under WAP, Mobile. Both comments and pings are currently closed.