Apps vs domains

[twomoon]

Hey guys,

I want you to explain something I don't understand. I don't use Apple products and I use cell phone to call people, so I don't use apps at all.

Could anybody explain me how a business, let's say company called for example Digital Solutions could benifit from mobile apps?

If they have a domain (a place in a cyberspace), they could build a website on it. They would promote their services in the Internet or offline. It's ok, it's normal and I understand it.

But how about the app? They could create an app and what next? How to promote it, how to make it appear in your iphone?

Maybe it sounds stupid, but I don't understand it.

This question was born while I was thinking and reading different opinions about future of domain names and the danger of apps.

Thanks, Nick

 

[equity78]

According to new statistics from analytics firm Flurry, the average mobile user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. That's 81 minutes per day for mobile apps versus 74 minutes per day spent surfing the Web (both desktop and mobile).

But mobile apps haven't always been more popular than the Web, says Flurry. Only last year, these positions were reversed, with users spending 43 minutes on apps versus 64 minutes on the Web.
For First Time, Apps Beat Web (Desktop & Mobile)

This growth in mobile app usage, clocking in at a 91% increase year-over-year, has come primarily from more sessions per user per day, as opposed to growth in average session lengths, says the report.

Time spent on the Web has grown much slower: up 16% over 2010, to reach the current rate of 74 minutes per day.

One of the most popular Web activities is browsing Facebook, Flurry notes. Facebook use accounts for 14 of the 74 minutes per day on the Internet, the company found.

Full story readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/06/mobile-app-use-tops-web-browsing.php

Mobile is becoming a bigger piece of the pie,hybriddomainer.com/2011/08/will-domaining-be-affected-by-a-post-pc-world-.html

The app Nick resides on the phone its right there,so if you can get your app noticed in the APP Store, or the Android Market, your audience should grow. You will still want and need a website IMO. There are things that make sense to do on your phone, pass the time with Angry Birds, get directions, Twitter etc... but there will be plenty where you want and need the bigger screen and the net.

Apps does not mean you got it easy. The top-10 apps in the Android Market account for a staggering 43% of app usage on Android devices, reports Boy Genius Report, citing new Nielsen data.

"Despite the hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android, a very small proportion of apps make up the vast majority of time spent," according to Don Kellogg, Director of Telecom Research & Insights at Nielsen.

Meanwhile, the top-50 apps in the Market account for 61% of all usage, which means the vast majority of Android apps account for just 39% of app usage. Source www.bgr.com

 

[Juanle455]

This article talks about how users tend to prefer apps over web surfing:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1

 

[DU]

A lot of Apps are just presentation retreatment of the website. There are some pure Apps but they are really a mobile complement to web access imho.

It's convenience. TV apps are ( or going) to be built in a similar fashion. What has happened over the last 5 years is that people have traded a "page" and "browse" view of the internet and turned it on its head and think of it more as a "request" and "response" API.

It's a subtle difference but has had a huge impact insofar as there is no long a need for a pure "browser" type client.

Promotion is the same for any application/site. The main difference is that you have to pay Apple for the iPhone to get into their AppStore.

Nearly ALL growth of an App is related to one of three things: Existing traffic/customers (i.e. GoDaddy, TheTimes) Tools for Existing Platforms (i.e. Tapatalk for vBulletin, or Twitter clients) or through a network effect.

I think the significance of domains diminishes as time moves forward; however, the brandable names will STILL be required. For example - if you have a Coffee app... You will want a name like CoffeeApp or Coffee or Coffee TV or Coffee Co - you won't ever have a need for ArabicaCoffeeBeans.com.

The Long Tail domains are going to fall off a cliff very soon. The greatest change in the internet is going to be voice access to Apps and if you're on a phone you're usually quite specific about what you want.. you want a specific provider/service/app... not just something found out of nowhere.

So Semantic Organization, Directory and Discovery Services combined with a true BRAND name will be the future. Domains will still be part of that.. but just not in the same way they are needed now, imho.

I like Eq's answer better.

 

[equity78]

I actually liked yours. I just wanted to give Nick some basic stuff and places to do more research.

Your take on long tail makes sense and those names could become all reg fee.
Maybe those have to be developed to maintain any value.

 

[interestedenough]

I've been asking myself the same question. Here is my thoughts on the issue:

- As long as there is competition amongst mobile platforms (ie android vs. itunes vs win-mobile vs black-berry) thete will always be the need for domain names for apps.

Why? Because a competitive app. will have the need to develop individual versions for each platform, and with multiple platforms, it will need a domain name to serve as a hub. Another trend is network devices such as chromeOS devices. Look for example at the chrome and firefox apps; they mostly have domains associated to them.

 

[fm1234]

When looking at narrow market data like app usage, it's useful to consider broad market data as well -- like this study, the general thrust of which suggests that as the current generation of teen and early twenties women mature, their reliance on phones as their primary connection to the Internet is only going to increase -- which, among other similar studies, tends to suggest that apps are going to become even more prevalent than they are now.


Frank

 

[equity78]

@interested and Fm good posts, rep added.

I think the other thing is that there are just so many things where you want a larger screen and a more robust experience.

People are not always out and when home they are going to use their computer. The other major place for web usage is work, if someone has the Internet at work they are going to surf the web.

 

[twomoon]

Thanks for the interesting replies and thoughts guys!

From that articles you provided, I understood that yeah, people become to use mobile phones more than PC and they prefer using apps than direct navigation or access.

But look, what people where people are going thru apps: e-mail, social netwokrs, rss feed, Skype, games, radio.

And what about products? When I want to buy a product thru internet I need to find it, so I need to go to search engine and to find it. Especcialy if I'm looking for a product I need to be delivered today or tomorrow.

Let's make an example. I live in my city, my country and I want to buy a phone thru Internet. What am I doing? I'm googling the phone model I like and finding an online phone store nad buying the device. I can look for a phone thru mobile phone but I would also use web for that purpose. It's not possible to use any apps for that. Am I right?

Or another example. I'm an online store and I'm selling furniture. Let's say there are 200 online stores in my city that are selling furniture. To be competitive in a new reality we need to create apps for ourselves? And even we will create apps how the user would choose and find that apps on his mobile?
Or someone will create ONE furniture related app for my country/city, where all stores would be included and the user will choose what to buy?

I don't understand totally how to competite in that apps world.

2-nd part.

Tell me guys if I'm right.

Business model for apps. I will choose 20-30 restaurants from my city, will go to them and film their interiors, will gather data about their menu's. After that I will create an app for that purpose. Then I would upload it somewhere and people would pay for example $1 to download it and to use it in their phones.
Is it how I could earn money?

3-rd part.

For many of us our main endusers are small-mid companies who have "complicated", long or/and not exact domain names their business based on.
We always would have something to offer them. They won't go nowhere, I don't think they can disappear from the web. What would stop them from buying domains from us?