In December 2009, mobile search engine Taptu found about 326,000 touch-optimized mobile sites on the Internet. By April 2010, this number had grown by over 35%. According to Taptu’s latest report, there are now over 440,000 touch-enabled sites on the Web. The annual growth rate for touch-friendly websites is close to 230%. In comparison, Apple’s App Store is currently seeing annual growth rates of around 144% and the Android store is growing at around 400% annually.
Growing Much Faster than Expected
In the company’s last report, Taptu estimated that the size of touch-friendly Web would reach half a million sites by the end of the year and about 1 million by the end of 2011. Given these new numbers, however, Taptu now estimates that there will be 1.1 million touch-optimized sites on the Web by the end of 2010.
The reason for this rapid growth is surely the increasing popularity of touch-screen phones and touch-screen enabled devices like the iPad. As touch-enabled mobile devices become more common, having a touch-optimized site is now becoming a necessity for online publishers and retailers, especially as more and more users simply expect these organizations to have sites that are optimized for mobile usage. In Taptu’s analysis, shopping and services sites now make up 22.1% of all touch-friendly sites.
These retailers and publishers could obviously also opt to just develop native apps (and many currently do both), but thanks to HTML5 and other new technologies, it will become increasingly possible for developers to create mobile web apps that will feel more and more like native apps. There will always be a role for native apps, but given the choice between developing numerous native apps for an increasingly diverse mobile ecosystem or one mobile web app that works everywhere, many companies will surely opt for developing a touch-friendly website instead of mobile apps.
Taptu: Virtual RoundtableView more presentations from Taptu Touch Search.
