The mobile browser is not dead, exactly, but if it were an animal it might be on the endangered species list. Mobile users are spending more time using mobile apps and less and less time surfing the Web from their mobile devices, based on recent statistics from Flurry. Apps took up 86 percent of the average U.S. mobile consumer’s time online, or 2 hours and 19 minutes per day, the firm reported. By contrast, time spent on the mobile Web averaged just 14 percent of the U.S. mobile consumer’s time, or 22 minutes per day.
Erika, I agree that the mobile searcher is important, whether they're searching via the web or apps. The mobile Web is still growing, though, as Cloudfour reported (http://blog.cloudfour.com/chart-mobile-web-growth-since-last-flurry-report/) in spite of Flurry's report that many people spend a lot of time in Facebook and games on apps. My latest column in MarketingLand makes the case for a focus on web rather than apps for marketers, but it's especially the case for searchers, both for the reasons you mention and because app content is only shown in search results in Google, and only if you already have the app installed on your phone. http://marketingland.com/native-mobile-apps-are-beating-the-mobile-web-heres-why-you-should-still-focus-on-mobile-web-over-apps-78919
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Don't Overlook the Mobile Searcher
Posted by: Erika Morphy April 15, 2014 06:20 PMThe mobile browser is not dead, exactly, but if it were an animal it might be on the endangered species list. Mobile users are spending more time using mobile apps and less and less time surfing the Web from their mobile devices, based on recent statistics from Flurry. Apps took up 86 percent of the average U.S. mobile consumer’s time online, or 2 hours and 19 minutes per day, the firm reported. By contrast, time spent on the mobile Web averaged just 14 percent of the U.S. mobile consumer’s time, or 22 minutes per day.