Mobile Internet - browsers versus apps
Posted: Monday 11 October, 2010
Keredy Andrews
New Media Age detailed some interesting figures from an Orange Mobile Exposure survey in Thursday’s issue and the headline – UK mobile users prefer browsers to apps for using web – really resonated with me as I rarely use the apps on my android phone. The story also explains that this preference, seven in ten people, isn’t reflected in less mature markets like Poland where apps drive online usage. To fully understand what this means I think we would need to know whether Polish websites are well optimised for mobile or not, as they tend to be in the UK. I suspect the data doesn’t show that people favour apps in those countries, just that apps are better developed and easier to access than many websites are. Of course, how apps versus websites are marketed and how fashionable they are perceived to be culturally will affect the evaluation of these stats.
I’ve thought it through and there are a number of reasons why I prefer using the browser rather than individual apps and I have found something in common -
- Websites are often easier to navigate. For example, on my Facebook app I have to return to the menu page just to navigate between notifications, messages and the newsfeed – this wastes my time
- I’m already familiar with the layout of most websites I visit because I have used them on a desktop or laptop. Websites are often prettier visually and they generally conform to a fairly generic template. This means most sites will have the menu on the left or top and because I know where to go so it always seems to take me longer to find what I want on an app – this wastes my time
- I get tired of getting update alerts and having to download them for the apps I have and I don’t have that many. They stack up until I get a moment to do a bunch at once so if I had tens and tens of them I’d have at least one to download every day – this wastes my time
- I find it easier for me to hit Google from my home screen and search for the website I want. When using apps I find that I scroll, scroll, scroll for the app I want, then accidentally touch on the wrong one, start again, and scroll, scroll, scroll, can’t see it, scroll too far and then eventually get what I want. You get the point – this wastes my time
So, for me, apps aren’t yet as instinctive to use as websites and they make me feel like I’m doing what I’m doing the long winded way round. I’d like to know the ages of the people surveyed – will apps be the natural point of brand contact in years to come? Does the age of smartphone users have a bearing on the stats from the other countries like Poland? Either way I look forward to using some apps that make me feel like I’m saving time – come on developers, wow me!
