Them’s fighting words Google. Right, hot on the heels of the hell-bent-for-dollars Apple announcement that 1.5 billion apps have been downloaded from the iTunes App store, Google says that this is not in fact the future. Come again? It now seems that the big GOOG is not in fact a true app store believer, in fact they are beginning to come across as an apostate. In this interview, Google claims strongly that in fact that “powerful browsers” will carry the day.
That almost makes sense. Up until I actually my version of mobile Safari I want this to be true. I mean, why dig through the poorly indexed app store if I can hit up the website? Then I try to do so, and remember how slow and plodding mobile browsing is on a mobile phone. Seven seconds later I am in the app store, cursing search, but at lest getting somewhere. It is especially bad for iPhone users, most of the internet is broken without flash.
But if Google claims it, we have to pay attention. Perhaps in two more generations the mobile browser will finally be built into something useful. However, until then there is at least one smartphone user who is sticking with the app store. Final thought, Apple has had so many downloads because there are some damn fine applications in the app store. I lost two hours of sleep last night over geoDefense.
Apps work, and are not going anywhere fast, but if we move to a functional browser, count me in.
