Mobile search company Taptu claims the future of the mobile web will be dominated by multi-platform, browser-based websites, what it terms the 'mobile touch web', rather than platform-specific apps developed for different mobile operating systems. Taptu estimates there are already 326,000 'mobile touch' websites globally, nearly double the 172,000 apps found in both Apple and Google's app stores. The company expects that gap to widen over the next two years with browser-based websites set to hit 680m by 2012, compared with an estimated 380m iPhone and Android apps.

Comment: while the sheer absolute number of sites is not really the key deciding factor, we believe Taptu are right in principle. Apps (downloadable) are for repeat-use, utility type services, and due to their high development and maintainance cost (not to mention non-compatibility across mobile systems) only suitable for a small number of scenarios, many of which are already out there.