Tech in Asia x Opera Tour – Future of the Web: is it the mobile web, apps, or something else?

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, what’s the browser’s role in the app world?

Apps pull in popular web content directly, making the browser an alien tool for accessing “the rest of the web”. As a result, the browser is getting used less and less every year, making it seem irrelevant.

However, the number of websites on the internet is still growing rapidly and web technology is more popular than ever. While native apps and the mobile web each have unique strengths and benefits, they face similar challenges. Both ecosystems struggle to keep content and services discoverable and keep sites and apps from getting outdated or broken.

Will apps succeed in reinventing basic features of the mobile web by offering app-linking and in-app search, or will the mobile web catch up quicker with hardware access, performance, and a mobile-optimized user experience? Can one of these worlds win, or will they simply co-exist until the next disruption?

Come to the Tech in Asia Ho Chi Minh City (March 17) and Yangon (March 27) meetups, where leaders at Opera will share their insights on this issue.

Huib Kleinhout will deliver the keynote for the Ho Chi Minh meetup.

A Netherlands native, Kleinhout is helping change the way the world surfs the web through Opera Coast, the browser that blurs the line between apps and the mobile web. Kleinhout has been with Opera’s Desktop team since 2005. When he came up with the idea for Opera Coast, he got support to pursue and develop it.

Before joining Opera, Kleinhout did his master thesis at Philips Research. He is co-inventor of some patents from Philips Research that form the basis of multi-touch, which Apple popularized through the iPhone.

Thirty days after its launch, the iOS version of the Opera Coast app passed one million downloads. The app was named one of TIME’s Top 10 Apps of 2013 and one of “5 can’t-miss apps” by Mashable. This year, Opera Coast is nominated for Best Mobile App in the 2015 Best Mobile App Awards.

Meetup agenda on March 17 (Ho Chi Minh City) and March 27 (Yangon):

18:30 – 19:00: Registration
19:00 – 20:00: Keynote by Huib Kleinhout; speaker for the Yangon meetup will be announced soon
20:00 onwards: Q & A + Networking over snacks

Venues:

Nest by AIA, 2 Hai Trieu, Bitexco Financial Tower, 2nd Floor, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam