Ben Thompson responds to a report from Flurry.com suggesting that the Internet is dead and that mobile apps are now the new king…
There is no question that apps are here to stay, and are a superior interaction model for some uses. But the web is like water: it fills in all the gaps between things like gaming and social with exactly what any one particular user wants. And while we all might have a use for Facebook – simply because everyone is there – we all have different things that interest us when it comes to reading.
Everything new that comes along begins as a pendulum swing. It starts out with a lot of motion, gains momentum, and eventually swings all the way to other side where it becomes overkill, and people pull back towards the middle to find a suitable comfort. Mobile apps are no different.
But it’s not to say that the web will always go on. Even the web is a pendulum swing, and big business will continue to innovate in the name of market share. Notice how Google Reader was shut down in order to boost publishing on Google Currents? The business of writing can shift to the app platform as well.