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"News and magazine apps are a segment where the momentum is likely to shift towards the Web within the next two to three years," noted senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. "Since news and media content already account for a large share of smartphone usage and are likely to play an even bigger role in later adopters' usage, changes in this segment alone will make subscribers on average download fewer native apps." The next wave of smartphone owners in mature markets like the U.S., Western Europe and Asia will download fewer apps than the first one-third of mobile consumers who bought smartphones, according to the report on mobile app storefronts. At the same time, ABI expects that in the games and utilities categories, the mobile Web will probably never catch up with native apps, due to the difficulty in matching the user experience. ABI's outlook on the future of apps appears at odds with a separate report released Tuesday by Strategy Analytics, which maintains that the emergence of HTML5 won't put much of a dent in the app economy. Instead, it predicts the Web programming language will lead to the spread of hybrid apps that combine HTML5 with native APIs (application programming interface) to harness the best of native and open standards.

"The experience reskins an actual location in the fantasy environment of Berk, the island in DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon 2 animated movie. You can explore fantasy-style landscapes - layered on a map of San Francisco - while flying around on the back of a creature like Toothless, the Night Fury dragon from the film. This kind of app is a hybrid of exploration and actual gameplay, and it is an interesting experiment that blends different mobile technologies as well as movies, games, and the real world. "

Bjork's new app approach to music - game, score, visual graphics, etc