Web Apps Hit the Mainstream
A new study by Rubicon Consulting released today at the AJAXworld Conference in Santa Clara, California indicates that web apps have spread beyond the so-called "early adopter" set and have made their way into the consciousness of a majority of web users. "Most industry observers talk about 'Web 2.0' applications as something that's coming in the future, but our research showed that some web apps are already spreading rapidly through the PC user base," said Michael Mace, a principal at Rubicon Consulting of the report.
According to the study, which surveyed 2,000 randomly selected US adults who have a personal computer (Linux, Windows, and Mac), 80% said they had heard of web applications. More than half have actually tried a web application and 37% use at least one on a regular basis. That's more than the 16% usually thought of as early adopters, said Rubicon. The survey defined web applications as "websites that replace a task the user previously performed using a software application installed on the PC."
Things aren't so rosy for all segments of the web app ecosystem, though. Email and games enjoy the highest adoption rates, but well-covered (by blogs and the press) segments such as web office apps are still struggling to attract users. Just 2% of those survey had ever used a online database app, for example. Among those market spaces that have attracted usage, however, they are garnering a lot of attention from users. On average, those who used at least 1 web application regularly used web apps 40% of their total application usage time -- meaning that desktop apps are starting to be replaced completely by web apps.
Usage was even more pronounced among college students, where just 11% of respondents said they had never herd of web apps. Rubicon concluded that on college campuses in the US, using web applications is a mainstream activity.
So why do people not use web apps? The number one response was "I have no need for them," according to the study, indicating that many people have just not found any web applications that make them want to switch from a desktop app they already use. Surprisingly (at least to Rubicon), the second most frequent reason given for not using web apps was security concerns. "Based on this research, security fears appear to be a significant barrier to future growth of web applications," wrote Rubicon in the study, saying that the fears were not necessarily unfounded.
Conclusion
Rubicon offered some key take aways from their research:
- To web app companies: Users are incredibly practical; the products must be as well.
- To traditional software companies: No traditional software application is immune to web-based competition, so adopt web app practices now.
- Everyone: Address security now.
I think their second point is the most important. Web applications are not a thing of the future, and the early adopter types who read this blog and write about them on blogs like this one are no longer operating in their own little world -- web apps are quickly reaching the mainstream consciousness. Traditional software makers will need to address that or risk losing market share to smaller, more agile upstart companies that create applications for the web.
The barrier for entry into the web app market is very low and the barrier for adoption among users is equally low, making web applications a real and significant threat to traditional software developers who dismiss them out of hand.
Web 2.0 image from Aristocrat.
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Our research confirms your analysis of the Web office market. We have found that the typical "man or woman on the street" is often unaware of the sophisticated capabilities that are available or that many companies now offer tiered pricing systems where the initial entry is free.
It appears that this lack of awareness often exists even among people who would benefit substantially from easy-to-use office applications.
Bruce Judson
http://www.SearchFreeApps.com
Would you consider Yahoo mail or gmail a web application? If so, most people have been using web apps since the late 90's. They might just not have thought about calling them that.
Josh,
I agree with Deepak. The use of web-based e-mail (Hotmail, Yahoo etc) has been around for a while and it could be claimed that more people use web-based e-mail than desktop e-mail software.
Hence, the inclusion of e-mail in the survey skews the results in my opinion. Its the usage of other web based apps like office applications, CRM apps, image processing and manipulation, paint etc that would provide more interesting analysis.
I agree that the biggest barrier to adoption is SECURITY. Not sure if its low as you've commented.
being that many popular websites are web apps (flickr, gmail, etc.) - i am not surprised at the high overall numbers.
the 2% database number further down does not surprise me either, that really shows that everyone in that space is, to some extent, in it together when it comes to customer education.
http://www.blist.com
Hi, Deepak.
The definition we gave for web applications was websites that replace something you would have formerly done using an application installed on your PC. So yeah, chances are that people would count online e-mail apps like GMail, as long as they access them through the web interface rather than reading them through an e-mail client installed on the PC.
But I think that just underlines the main finding of the study -- that usage of web apps is a lot more prevalent than most people realize. A lot of industry analysts talk about web apps as if they're something that's just starting to happen or that only a few early adopters are using. Not so.
The whitepaper on our site gives usage rates for a lot of other web app categories.
Mike at Rubicon
Interesting - I guess the results apply to the US population only? I am asking because the language the applications are using and the discussions about those application in blogs and in the news is usually English. So an average user who does not speak English would find it hard to use Web Apps or to learn about them in the first place.
I wonder what impact language has on the spread and use of Web Apps and new technologies in general?
Yes, the survey was US adults only.
I think language has a huge impact on the spread of Web technologies. We call it a worldwide web, but if you look at the traffic to websites and blogs, it sometimes seems like the web is split into language blocks that don't exchange information very efficiently -- English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, etc.
Most web app companies can't afford to pay for traditional "localization" of their software. Some of them are doing interesting work with user communities to get their stuff translated by volunteers. Shopify and WordPress are nice examples.
Mike at Rubicon
Hi Mike,
I am using WordPress myself so I am aware of the power of community involvement. There really is an opportunity to spread the word (or the technology) to the regions and languages through community involvement - if it is done properly. So far such communities have grown around free and open source software.
Would this be a model for proprietary software too? To build a community of loyal users that localize applications because the apps are so convincing? Would it be possible to open "language files" to the public similarly to api's? I think this could have a huge impact.
Sorry for diverting from the actual topic - I just feel that there is so much ost in translation - kind of
Suzeric, we've been tracking this particular issue closely. I feel very strongly that the localization approaches being used by the noncommercial app folks can also work for commercial app companies -- if they learn to engage with their user communities. That's very hard for many traditional app companies, which often try to avoid too much engagement with their users because they view that as a support cost.
Microsoft is trying to do some community localization already, with mixed results (in my opinion).
It's a subject I'm kind of passionate about, but I'll restrain myself from preaching too much here. If you'd like to continue the conversation, my contact info is in the whitepaper that's linked to at the top of the article.
Mike at Rubicon