Quote:
Originally Posted by andy
What I really don't understand is that some iPhone users, including the people writing the adverts, seem to think it necessary to have a different application for each website to be used.
Do they find it difficult opening a standard browser and then spelling Tesco?
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Probably because the App. Store became a big success and everyone was trying to capture eyeballs on iPhone screens and presence on the App. Store. Seems all big companies, including those who aren't consumer-focused, put out apps. for branding reasons.
Yes a lot of Apps. are basically front-ends for the data delivered from web apps, with a UI tailored to the multitouch UI. It's more than just putting together a mobile web site, in a way. It also lets them integrate video since Flash isn't well supported yet on ARM processors.
In fact, one analyst said Google and other search engines could be adversely impacted if smart phones are used more and apps. on smart phones is the vehicle to access web content, rather than the browser, where search ads bring revenues to the search engine companies.
Of course, free apps. have ads now and Google is well-placed because they bought the biggest mobile ad firm (Ad Mob). We might see bigger ads in iPad applications too.