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Kevin Tofel评述移动设备和应用带来的两大改变

发布时间:2011-04-29 10:58:08 Tags:,,

Gigaom网站撰稿人Kevin Tofel根据自己多年使用移动设备的经验,对正在发生的变革发表自己的看法。以下是游戏邦编译的相关内容:

如果你认为移动应用经济热潮已褪去,如下信息可能会打消这个念头:ABI Research于28日的报道中表示未来5年内,用户下载的移动应用量约为440亿个。到那时,全球人口将近70亿。大多数人没有智能手机,因此由数据可以推算出世界上的男女老少每人平均将下载超过6款移动应用。

就我个人而言,由于多种原因,移动软件的迅速崛起让我感兴趣。Compaq Aero 2130掌上型是我使用的首个掌上设备,购于2000年左右。当时并没有“app store”,但我在设备上安装了许多软件。我购买这个设备有许多原因,其中之一是它身具未来移动设备的雏形。当然,此前的展望现在已变成现实,上季度美国售出的手机中半数以上是智能手机,这种比例前所未见。

Compaq Aero 2130

我记不得自己在Aero及后期购买的设备上安装的应用数量。当时人们根本不把跟踪这些数据当回事,因为真正拥有设备的人很少把安装移动应用放在首位。3年前苹果AppStore及其后续竞争者的出现彻底改变了一切,现在我们会去关注商店中的应用数,设备上安装的应用数目、应用与设备的兼容性以及我们在2016年会下载多少应用。

预测到的手机应用下载量激增让我重新考虑1年前感到困惑的问题,现在正发生着两种改变。我们逐渐从电脑转向手机,也舍弃厚重的全功能软件,开始使用基于特别任务的程序。Seesmic、FiOS Mobile和Remember the Milk之类的程序通过网络将我与他人、设备或数据连接起来,而且它们使用比移动站点更时尚更讨人喜欢的方式完成这些任务。纵然我可以在真正的Twitter站点阅读或发表内容,但应用可以给我带来视觉感染力且功能更易使用,这意味着软件让人从浏览器向移动网络转变。尽管有可用于移动设备上的站点,但RTM应用更易使用,让我感受到更好的用户体验。

事实上,这些应用是移动网络的小型功能组合,特别为移动设备(游戏邦注:通常指向某个特定平台。)设计的小型软件带来浏览器上体验不到的导航和乐趣。应用的高需求量为这种基于任务的方法提供支持,也突出了新设备进驻市场需面临的挑战。比如RIM的PlayBook,公司过于强调界面、可用性和设计,应用太少。数月内即将面世的惠普TouchPad也会面临相同的挑战,当然任何MeeGo系统设备也未能幸免。制造出使用方法简单的优秀设备在当代已远远不够,未来数年的情形也将如此。尽管网络应用可以在某些时候满足用户需要,但基于HTML5之类应用的出现仍是遥遥无期。

windows-phone-7

windows-phone-7

对微软来说,境况可能尤为严峻,因为公司面临上述变更中的双重挑战。从电脑到手机的转变对Windows系列丝毫没有帮助,因为你无法将桌面用户界面塞进移动设备中。这里,我想再评述下自己使用掌上平板电脑和7寸超级移动电脑,他们只适用于某些用户。基于任务的小型程序也并非微软擅长之物,尽管Office系列作为办公软件尤为出色,但许多功能并不适用于移动设备。公司正在开发适用于Windows Phone 7的Office产品,真正面世还需时日。

无论这些公司是否为移动应用经济做好准备,我都会享用并思考这些设备上的改变。我仍不记得自己过去11年里下载过多少应用,但很荣幸看到全世界都开始这么做。是时候下载更多应用了!(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

What 44 Billion Mobile App Downloads by 2016 Means

Think the mobile app economy is a passing fad? You might want to think again: ABI Research today reports that an estimated 44 billion mobile applications will be downloaded within the next five years. By that time, the global population will be around 7 billion people and while most of them will not have a smartphone, the math works out to more than six mobile app downloads for every man, woman and child on the planet!

This rapid rise in mobile software is interesting to me personally for a few reasons. My first handheld device was purchased around the year 2000: it was a Compaq Aero 2130 handheld. Regardless of the recent spats over the term “app store,” I installed plenty of software on the device. I bought it for several reasons, but one was because of the future vision that mobile devices would bring. Of course, that vision is coming to fruition now: more than half of all phones sold in the U.S. last quarter were smartphones, for the first time ever.

What I don’t remember from my Aero days, or from the many devices that followed, is how many apps I installed on the device. We simply didn’t care about tracking them because so few people actually had devices that could install mobile apps in the first place. That essentially changed three years ago with Apple’s AppStore and subsequent competitors: now we track how many apps are in a store, how many apps are on the average device, the engagement with them, and how many apps we will have downloaded by 2016.

This massive number of expected mobile app downloads also adds to a thought I had roughly a year ago in that there are two paradigm shifts going on right now. We’re in the midst of migrating from many activities from desktop to mobile computing and also away from heavy, full-featured software to task-based computing: Apps such as Seesmic, FiOS Mobile and Remember the Milk allow me to connect with people, devices or data over the web. And they do so in a fashion that’s generally more pleasing to use than a mobile site. I could read or send tweets through the actual Twitter site, but I use an app for visual appeal and easier access to functionality, which means the software has transitioned my mobile web usage away from the browser. The same scenario applies to Remember the Milk, which I use to manage my tasks. There’s a mobile-friendly site available, but the RTM app is far more responsive and offers me a better user experience.

Essentially, these apps are bite-sized, functional chunks of the mobile web. The small bits of software are designed specifically for mobile use — often targeted for particular platforms — which brings a level of navigation and enjoyment not found in a browser. This task-based approach, and the large demand for apps that support it, underscore the challenge that new devices faces when entering the market. Specifically, I’m thinking of Research In Motion’s PlayBook, which has much to like in terms of interface, usability and design, but has few apps. HP will face the same challenge with its TouchPad when it arrives in the next few months, as will any MeeGo devices, if they arrive at all. Building a great device that’s easy to use isn’t enough these days, nor will it be for the next several years. And although web apps can suffice in some cases, the promise of app-like features from HTML5 is still off in the distance.

The situation has the potential to be a double-whammy for Microsoft because the company faces both of these challenges in terms of paradigm shift. The move from desktop to mobile hasn’t helped the Windows franchise because you can’t cram a desktop user interface into to a mobile device. Again, I speak from experience as I’ve purchased a handful of tablet PCs and 7-inch ultra-mobile PCs: they only work for a subset of users at best. Task-based computing in small amounts isn’t what Microsoft is known for either; the Office franchise is an outstanding productivity suite, but it’s filled with functionality not suited for mobile activities. The company is on track with its Office products for Windows Phone 7, but there’s more work to be done.

Regardless of which companies are ready for the mobile app economy or not, I’m enjoying these shifts in device use and thinking. I still don’t know how many apps I’ve downloaded over the past 11 years, but hey: it’s nice to see the rest of the world starting to catch up. Time to go download some more apps! (Source: Gigaom)


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