Apple's AppStore does not represent the future of the mobile industry, says Google Engineering VP and developer evangelist Vic Gundotra. Speaking at an industry conference in San Francisco on
Thursday, Gundotra said that the future belonged to the Web, and that users would get their information and entertainment from browsers in the future. He also claimed that even Google is not rich
enough to support all of the different mobile platforms from Apple's AppStore to those of BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, and others.
"What we clearly see happening is a move to
incredibly powerful browsers," Gundotra said. "Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning. We believe the web has won and over the next
several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that's where Google is investing."
Gundotra added that even Apple CEO Steve
Jobs had said, "Build for the web," when the iPhone was launched, but the idea had met with resistance from developers. The timing may not have right, Gundotra said, but "the rate of innovation in the
browser [over the past 12 months] is surprising. I think Steve really did understand that, over the long term, it would be the web, and I think that's how things will play out."
Read the whole story at FT Techblog »