There are many who think that Apps will kill domain names.
Stories have been written on the topic, Sessions at domain name conferences have been dedicated to the subject and we have written about it on TheDomains.com as well.
According to Adweek.com , Seth Sternberg, CEO and founder of Meebo had a completely different point of view saying that:
“I think apps are dead in three to five years,”
“”Don’t get too used to the app for everything era. In just a few years it could be over.”
He added that:
“As the links between mobile devices and the cloud speed up, applications won’t need to be stored locally to deliver a snappy experience.”
“The cutesy, bright-colored icons (or “chicklets”) that make it easy to open different programs will stay, but the distinct underlying software will go.
Another participant in the session, Shawn Gunn, head of strategic advertising for mapping and location data company Navteq added:
“It’s very hard to understand a unique user in each one of those app environments and so your ability to monetize against them, whether it’s for advertising or other types of models, becomes a lot more difficult,”
“You have much better targeting on the Web because you can kind of persistently track a user. . . . That’s a big challenge today in mobile.”
“As developers move toward more open platforms and remove the silos, “apps” will give way to mobile experiences that are more like the Web.”
In addition, the cost to maintain an app and keep it relevant is substantially higher then a website. Small developers see little upside in the long run. The easy money in 99 cent downloads is long gone.
what does he smokes? 🙂
within 5 years Apple may have a market value of over $500 billion and over over $200 BILLION of cash in its pocket … unless it will buy the US Department of Treasury or the State of California … 🙂
“Apps”cannot replace “words”. Words will always be a significant part of Internet/mobile culture. So because people will have “apps” does that mean people will no longer read or write anymore? Highly unlikely. That’s why I don’t see domains going away anytime soon. Domains are like physical home addresses. Maybe someone should come out with a phonebook full of apps instead of letters and numerics…LOL. Apps and domains can co-exist but it’s clear that domains do something that apps cannot do.
What they say makes sense on the surface about apps, but then again, these are developers comments, and we all know, that is all us domain investors, know these guys and gals on a whole have no business sense or understanding of marketing, so maybe apps will be big regardless of what they say.
Let’s hope the first prediction of the cloud comes true. Maybe they’ll be right on their tech predictions at least.
Regardless, even if apps are big, domains are going nowhere. Everything will rise with the tide.
While, we agree that apps will move to a more cloud based system, to say that apps will be dead in 3-5 years is not accurate, despite it is his opinion.
Billions are dollars are going into apps for the future. Mobile is taking over desktop/laptop.
There are more than 1,000,000 apps now on numerous platforms. By 2013 there will be more than 2,000,000 does not sound like “dead” to us.
Thanks for the read.
GreatApps.com
How do I know Domains are essential valuable assets that nothing will kill?
Answer: The alarming alacrity at which big companies and shyster lawyers are coveting names that don’t belong to them. The only thing that will kill domains is allowing them to grab these names via UDRP or whatever you call’em.
I haven’t seen go after apps yet, those must not be as valuable, eh? I forgot who was asked why do you rob banks, and he replied that it’s where the money is. They come for our domains because that’s where the future is.
The quotes are self-contradictory. Apps will still be used but stored in the cloud instead of locally on each phone and thus possibly monetized differently. I don’t see how that makes apps dead.
Again, I hope people actually read this crap and process it for themselves instead of just taking the headlines at face value.
for every apps created, they need a domain name like PoopApp dot com
GreatApps…that a nice cute site you got there…
yeah, it sounds like he’s saying apps won’t be dead, they’ll just be stored in the cloud instead of downloaded to your device. Just a different storage system and delivery, makes sense. kids have no trouble filling up an 8 G ipod now, so anything that reduces the need to store files on a device is a good thing. we’ve heard domains will be dead forecasts many times, nice to see something else get the same forecast for a change!
Websites will always be more important than apps, and here’s why:
A good app gives its user a self-contained, useful, and 100% predictable experience.
A good website offers users something else, i.e., the hope and excitement of content discovery. It’s something that people don’t give much thought to, admittedly.
Central to human nature is the need for hope. When you visit DrudgeReport.com, TechCrunch.com, or Domaining.com you’re never sure what’s interesting tidbit or insightful analysis will pop-up on your screen. And it’s that excitement of not knowing what’s there, which provides online destinations with the stickiness that keeps people coming back — again and again. [case-in-point: Drudge breaks traffic records, constantly, despite looking circa 1998]
You NEVER get that with apps (save for the aggregation apps, like Pulse, which simply package that website content). Apps are really great, but almost always 100% predictable, in terms of user experience.
So I agree with the conclusion that apps are dead (or, at least, dying).
Apps have been always been dead as marketing strategy for everyone except for games and the top every-day destination sites like Facebook, Ebay, Amazon, etc… Why on earth would anyone download an app from any other business.
I am tossed on this one.
Apple is going towards and all app system through their App store. I am pretty sure that the next generation of computers will not have any cd/dvd slots and if you want any kind of application, you will have to get it online through their app store.
But then again, I have read that there are an ever growing number of analysts that believe that Apple is now hitting its peak and is on the way out (at least to be brought down to the level of PCs). This app store idea may very well be one of the reasons.
I see a place for apps in the every day life since we are going away from CD/DVD/Blu-Ray but there will have to be a major shakedown to get rid of the low hanging fruit (horrible apps)
Just my opinion.
Cheers
Setting games aside, the future for apps is B2B applications that help businesses and workforce improve themselves. This requires B2B sales and a website. I’m invested in one now. The cost to develop the software was about $25,000. The domain we want is $5,000 and was hand registered in 2009.
Apps are slowly moving into the TV as well. NOPE it’s not dead.
HTML5 and in-browser Flash support will kill apps. That’s why Steve Jobs didn’t want Flash support in the iPad/iPhone – because it offers an alternative to the App Store.
I recently decided to play around and see if I could build an android app from scratch to run alongside a site I had made that got real busy. It was kinda hard learning curve but I pulled it off to a degree. Anyway throughout that I was just thinking the whole time this is kinda dumb in a way. Its much much easier to just have an app that sends someone to your site and then you have the full power of standard web design, html 5 and so on, instead of being trapped on the particular version of android on any given device.
Sure things like very complex games or other specialised software will probably need to be locally installed for the foreseeable future but so much that is done in apps will likely be in the cloud before you can say ice cream sandwich. I wouldnt be writing domains off just yet.
Domains will always be useful and powerful. But to say that domains aren’t as valuable as they have been in the last few years. The market has peaked to a certain extent and most available market-level aggregate data show that reported sales prices in 2011 were the lowest since 2006.
Not sure if they would die off, as you only have to look at the PC world where clilent-side applications are still widely used, despite an evolution towards web-based apps.
I agree though that mobile client apps will peak, then it will follow PC clients and evolve more towards web-based.
I ate that phrase “the cloud”. Just say INTERNET people. Stop using that ridiculous marketing term.