“The death of the web has long been rumored (just Google ‘death of web’),” Paul Canetti writes for Medium. “However it’s not really the web that is losing popularity, it’s the web browser. Flurry said in its 2014 report that only 14% of time spent on mobile devices is in the browser compared to 86% in apps.”
“The death of the browser has been a slow and steady process, but I believe Apple Watch will now be the nail in the coffin,” Canetti writes. “Not only is there no Safari, but no one seems to notice or care!”
Caneti writes, “The lack of reaction, or even acknowledgement, that there is no Safari on Apple Watch, leads me to believe that not only is Apple right to not include it, but we are actually ready to accept it: a wearable world with no web browsers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, screen size is issue here (let’s face it, browsing full (non-mobile) websites on the 3.5-inch iPhone screens was also quite the chore), but Canetti is right, the world accepts that wearables and web browsers really don’t mix.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Of course not! Genius!
Safari is available as an add-on to the Apple Watch. The companion comes in 4.7 and 5.5 sizes of Safari.
It’s because you’ve not seen yet the Apple shirt with integrated display. Scroll on your watch, read on your shirt !
Can we assume the integrated display on the Apple shirt is on the sleeve? Anywhere else and it would not be practical.
And only if the shirt had long sleeves, but who wants to have to wear long sleeve shirts all the time.
And who wants to walk around with their arm raised in front of their eyes, like Rudolf Valentino in “The Sheik”. You might as well pull out your iPhone.
😃
Web browsers and websites are not dying anytime soon. They are just non-starters on very small devices like watches, and for good reason. I remember a mid-90s Dilbert comic strip poking fun at a “web browsing ring” where he’s surfin’ the web one character at a time.
There are still sites that I access via web on mobile, even if they have apps available. Usually because the app is out of date, or just isn’t as capable as the website. Even Apple doesn’t provide all the product info from their site on their Apple Store app. No videos, no tech specs, no comparison pages.
You nailed it, mossman. Apps are specialized tools. They are great for their intended areas of use, but they do not provide general access to the internet.
Web browsers will fade away on their own schedule if and when they are no longer useful tools. They will not disappear because Paul Canetti or anyone else has declared the Apple Watch to be the nail in the coffin.
We have enjoyed both apps and a web browser on the Mac for a couple of decades, and the browser is still a useful tool. The web browser is not disappearing anytime soon.
The web browser is to the internet as the operating system is to your computer – a general purpose tool for access, queries, and basic functions. Granted, the graphical/text interface of Safari may not be directly applicable to watches, rings, pendants, earrings, or similar small/embedded wearables. But the basic function will still exist in some form via voice interface or specialized eyewear using retina projection technologies. I have no doubt that we will eventually develop synaptic connections (wired or wireless) that will enable a more natural interaction with the “matrix.”
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the web browser have been greatly exaggerated.
I’m with you — I only download the app for a site if it’s a site I visit often and if the app offers a significantly improved experience over browsing the site. Otherwise, why clutter up my iPhone with countless little apps?
——RM
You mean like MDN app.
:-0
Exactly, I spend about 98% of my time on my iPad in a browser. Not sure how it would even work on such a small screen though, you just want small snippets of the very relavent information you immediately require which is best served by apps really which are already specialising the info specifically for the screen.
What? I won’t be able to read the New York Times on my wrist? Why would I even bother with such a disabled device. I want my money back.
I can see by the number of downvotes you received that some people still don’t get sarcasm…
——RM
It’s a stampede of Chinese hater kids and their misdirected ding-down retribution for the poor review of the Chinese 💩Watch here at MDN.
You could make a point without sounding like a racist ass-hat but you just couldn’t resist couldn’t you?
No racism in evidence. You, however, are an anonymous coward troll. You couldn’t post as a real person, could you. You wouldn’t be one of the Chinese hater kids, would you? Why yes you are! What else are we to believe?
This goes without saying . . .
…but someone felt the need to write an article.
If we need Safari on our wrists because we’re too lazy to pull our phones out, we’re a step away from those fatties on WALL•E…
We may only be two steps away right now…
Ah, back to living, in this case wired living
PSYCHOLOGY TESTING IN PROGRESS
You are part of an experiment to determine the behavior of Chinese 💩crap💩 fanbois when confronted with poor reviews of Chinese 💩crap💩 on the Internet.
Note the mass of ding downs on this page for no apparent reason. The China kiddies are all upset because MDN posted the article Order a fake Apple Watch from China and this is what you get and are loosing their retribution on every other article post. Sheeple can be silly that way.
Bahhhh! Moooo! 🐉💩
STAMPEDE!
I noticed, I also realised it would be stupid.
Web browsers aren’t going anywhere. Apps are all well and good, but they’re always specialist tools that try and keep you in silos. In some cases that’s fine – if I want a run tracked, or directions somewhere, I don’t care if I can’t get a recipe and look up a sports score in the same app. In others, it’s impractical at best or at worst it simply cuts you off from everything else out there.
A browser on a smartwatch would be absurd. Some sort of quick clip app though that can show you a snippet from a browser window open on your phone or laptop would be a really good idea though.
And this is why tech news is dead. This article (not MDN noticing the article) puts the final nail in the coffin. 90% of people don’t read tech news, and the other 10% comment like they had no tomorrow. This proves that although tech news is dead, it’s in the stage of rigor mortis, with occasional movements that could pass for signs of life.
See? You too can write about technology. Just introduce an attention-grabbing fictitious headline, support it with made-up or irrelevant stats, and then conclude that it all doesn’t matter. It helps if you copy the breathless yellow journalism 1900’s style common to the perpetually 13 spazbots that pass for tech journalists, too.