Is this the end of mobile applications?
Russ Beattie has decided to close down Mowser his mobile search engine today, that in itself is pretty sad but the post announcing the shut down is pretty harsh on the mobile application scene.
“I don’t actually believe in the “Mobile Web” anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to”
Michael Mace came in behind this with “Mobile Application RIP”
So it’s time to shut up shop and go home guys and all this on a day that Fring have released a really cool mobile application.
I am afraid guys I have to totally disagree, if you couldn’t find a business model for your application I am very sorry but the future of mobile is bright.
In the past 96hrs I have personally had demonstration of 4 mobile applications which have huge potential including a business model other than search which our friends at Google appeared to have covered pretty well already.
The failure of the business model certainly has nothing to do with the mobile application market and I think we are going to some amazing applications come on line over the next 6 to 12 months.
It’s a question of approach and perspective; just because some people are not making any money out of it or are suffering from “terminal business model” syndrome doesn’t mean the market is dead.
The demand is there and it’s just a question of monetizing it in the right way..
Exactly what I was trying to say Evert
Not so sure about take up of mobile apps. I have tried a few but none really jumped out at me despite how good they were.
Recently I was contacted by some guys where I was beta testing a mobile app of theirs. They were asking me what I thought and whether I would use it. I responded honestly - I thought it was a good robust application that I could see being used, however I would not be using it.
Why? they asked. Simply put, due to mobile pricing i Ireland it is simply too expensive to use their application. It makes more sense for me as a consumer to stick to my laptop and broadband than to use my phone.
I see so many folks in the UK and the States on unlimited data packages using their phones for all sorts of applications, but that’s just not an option for me at the moment with my n95 in Ireland.
Finally we get to go home….it’s all over…yeah…
Blogs are dead, Video On Net is dead, Mobile apps dead, maybe its time to turn to real estate…lol
Anyway IMHO i think there is a consolidation of the industry. Small players are dying, strong players becoming global…nothing Mobile will disappear. It’s a fact!
I thought the mobile web referred to the idea that you have web pages and content specifically designed and aimed at the mobile phone rather without a pc equivalent.
From TC:
It’s self-evident that there is opportunity to support mobile phone devices per se, but I think the point is that the N95 and, to a lesser extent the flash-less iPhone, can handle the full-blown web.
There’s no desire for users to have to get separate ‘mobile’ copies of real sites, when they can access the real sites themselves.
I’ll agree with Evert in that case, where applications need to be monetized in the right way. I’m more disappointed that someone can declare the mobile apps market dead because their own application failed. Seems very short-sighted.
(This coming from someone who’s just changed mobile in order to get access to these types of mobile applications, and one who would happily part with some kind of finance if the applications were going to aid productivity or make work and travel that bit easier).
Why not look at other ways of monetizing or evolving the existing service rather than pull the plug on it altogether?
If anything, the market is becoming more accessible to consumers, consumers whose needs are evolving just like their mobile devices continue to evolve.
Eventually there’ll be little or no distinction between what is “mobile specific” and “pc specific” in terms of applications and site delivery.
Market dead? I think not…
I’m in the ‘No to mobile specific web-apps’ camp. I use my phone’s internet connection a lot and there are apps which make use of that connection I’d be more than happy to pay for if they started charging. I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities out there if people don’t get hung up on the device. Most people are comfortable using a desktop/laptop as their primary access to these apps with a mobile suplementing their app usage not replacing it or existing in an isolated silo.
I think mobile has a bright future and my admob cheques would testify to that, revenue from admob is over twice my google www adsense earnings. They state on their site they’ve served 22 billion ads, if I extrapolate their total revenue from my stats, it looks very healthy indeed.
Christopher Mehigan makes a good point for the Irish situation - the data plans just aren’t there yet. It’s not going to completely change initially until decent data plans are offered - which involves the mobile telcos seeing the light and realising this.
My firsthand experience of this is that it won’t be happening willingly, they’ll trip over each other and slowly increase the offerings. We can only hope!
The other side of the coin is that the consumer can’t see the light either of the potential benefits - most people I can think of just want their mobile to text and phone. How many smartphones (and I’m talking every Nokia N-series, E-series, iPhones, etc. here) are actually used as smartphones?!?!