Don’t believe the hype : mobile apps aren’t killing off websites

A new study has just been released that provides some compelling stats into the usage of smartphones and mobile apps that shows app usage is starting to edge out the use of standard websites within mobile The study, published on Flurry, shows that for the first time, time spent on mobile apps outweighs that spent on standard web consumption. This comes in at 81 minutes spent daily on apps in June 2011, compared to 74 minutes spent surfing in general. That’s a growth of 91% for time spent on mobile apps over the past year. The stats certainly seem compelling and it has whipped up many bloggers into a frenzy, claiming that mobile web had better step aside to make room for apps. But is this a bit premature? Certainly the figures seem to speak for themselves, and you can’t doubt that for mobile apps, the numbers are moving in the right direction. A look at the graph released shows the trend year on year for June 2010 compared to July 2011 :

But where is the time spent?

Taken on their own, these numbers are certainly compelling. But is it a bit too early to proclaim the death of surfing on your mobile? The answer lies by digging a little further into the data provided. Flurry split this time down by category, showing that gaming comes out a a huge 47%, followed by social networking at 32%

One of the most popular activities – consuming news – comes out at an extremely low 9%. And while you could argue that this is a reflection of news publishers being slow to the app market, some major plays have been made by publishers to enter into the app game. What this shows is that surfing the web on mobile is still a much more preferable experience for mobile users for many areas. App usage will also increase among the new smartphone market, as teens enter the market with increasingly affordable handsets allowing for smartphone usage among a new audience. And they’re investing their time in gaming and social networks, which lend themselves easily to the app experience, as opposed to surfing.

I think it’s far too soon to predict that mobile apps are killing off websites, due largely to the fact that the graphs show that time spent on mobile sites has also increased year on year. While maybe not experiencing the rate of growth that mobile apps have, this has still increased from 64 minutes in 2010, compared to 74 minutes in 2011. Mobile web usage is certainly not going anywhere soon, and the experience of surfing on a mobile is largely to do with this. While you can invest a lot of time in one app (how much time have you spent on Angry Birds in one session for example?), there is a process of surfing the web, flicking between websites and scanning the content, that the app experience can’t replicate. At least yet.

The backlash begins?

Alongisde the findings in the mobile app study, an interesting startup has emerged, aimed with convincing publishes to move away from the app market and invest in mobile web publishing. The service ‘Onswipe‘ offers a platform that enables companies to create mobile-friendly versions of their site, that actually replicate the app experience, but are built in html5. And the comments from the CEO are exactly in line with the findings of the study. Jason Baptiste claims that while apps are suitable for many things such as games and social networking, they’re not so great for consuming content. He goes so far as to claim that ‘apps are bull****‘ And while taking on the might of Apple might seem a near impossible task, their harsh subscription model has proved less than popular with publishers, meaning that more time and money could be invested in developing clean and slick mobile sites, thus avoiding Apple’s subscription rates and offering a positive user experience.

This is an interesting play here and while I’m not suggesting that app usage is restrictive or on the way down – clearly the findings in the study above refute that – I’m not sure we will ever move into an app-exclusive market, or even that the findings are truly representative of mobile usage today. When so little time is spent on entertainment and news apps – huge areas for online usage overall – I think it’s a bit too premature to proclaim the death of the mobile site.