Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore - Part II

In my previous post "Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore" I talked about why the number of Mobile apps doesn't mean anything anymore.

This blog adds one more item - Money

Go to a VC today with a Mobile app and see if they'll fund it? It better be one incredible CROSS platform Mobile app before they'll even consider it.

Why?

Because it's all about the money. The distribution method (choke point) is the app store. A NO from Apple means that market is closed to you. Ok, now all you have left is Android and Windows Mobile. Still not bad - but is it enough that people will flock to your app and download it in the numbers that eventually makes money for the VC.

I wouldn't bet on it.

And that's really all it boils down to in the end. It's not whether or not a customer feels safe about buying a phone, it's nothing to do with the number of apps - that's so 2011.

No in the future - 2012 and beyond, it's going to be how you monetize that app. And there's only one truly cross platform app out there today which fulfills that promise and that's the browser. And that's the place where the next round of innovation is going to take place.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blog - "In the future - the ONLY Mobile app you'll need will be the Browser"

Why Mobile apps don't matter anymore

We all remember that famous quote "if you need a stylus for your tablet you've failed". Well "if you need 500,000 apps for your phone you've failed".

Seriously think about it. People cannot deal with 100 apps let alone 500,000. 99% of the apps are merely features not apps. For example how many features are there in Microsoft office - probably over a thousand (but not 500,000). How many API's are there in Apple's iOS? No idea - but it's not 500,000

Do you see the point here - the number of apps doesn't count. What counts is the apps that I really need. And for us mere mortals that usually no more than 10, maybe 25 and never exceeds 50

There's big debates going on about why Windows Phone 7 hasn't take off - link and Scoble responds that it's about the apps and customers wanting to feel "safe" - link

I don't think so. Windows Phone 7 has a superior user interface to both iPhone and Android - it has 40,000 apps (if you feel the need) and what it really has (and no one is paying attention to) is seamless integration into the Enterprise. Microsoft owns the Enterprise - what it was missing was a real phone OS that played nicely with IIS and their cloud solution. Now it has one. No other phone OS comes close to that level of integration.

So what if Round 1 went to iPhone and Android. In a few years no one will care. What they will care about is integration into the one thing that really counts - the Web. And nobody will do it as well as Microsoft.

We're now coming to the end of the first innings - App fatigue is setting in, I don't need more features in my phone, what I need is better battery life, better connectivity to where the real content is - the Web.

And my next post will be about just that - Why the only app you'll ever need is a browser.

Timing the Mobile Web Experience

Alois Reitbauer has a great post up at the Performance Calendar …. where he talks about how complex it is to measure the users experience from the browser. One quote is very interesting… "Creating a waterfall chart like the one below by just using information available in the browser simply is impossible." (see the link above for the image).

Well it's not impossible, it's just very difficult. Here's four snapshots from our Mobile Performance Timing app that tells you the story of what's taking place inside Androids browser when a user clicks on Google's Mobile home page. We even integrate this with carrier and geo-location data.

HAR report

Webkit timing events

Detailed information on each element…

Carrier and Geo-Location information

All I want for Christmas is an Introduction

What amazes me at the moment is the total lack of help out there in the tech marketplace. I see part of my job as to make introductions, to help others succeed. It's what leadership is really all about - doing the right thing vs. making things right.

I recently asked for a simple introduction, that's all. Nothing major, I could (and probably will) find away to reach this person on my own. But all I got was a NO.

WTH is wrong with helping other people out? It blows my mind, it takes a few seconds that's all. Good people do that, others obviously not so much.

Very sad. But welcome to the World where it's all about Me. We'll see how well that works out for the No's.