Is there a looming app engagement crisis ahead? Perhaps. At the very least, app models, economics and techniques are going to have to change as the category matures and potentially hits the wall.

The thinking in recent years was that apps would take over the Internet. Mobile web was supposed to be clearly dead. It's about the apps we were told.

However, connect the dots and it's not so clear that the app juggernaut is losing its mojo.

Consider a few recent items:

Localytics found that businesses are in a mobile engagement crisis. Twenty three percent abandon an app after one use. The good news? That abandon rate is an improvement on 2015's 25 percent.

Nomura noted that installs from the top 15 app publishers fell 20 percent year over year in May.

And then there's the anecdotal evidence. Your smartphone is crowded with apps that aren't use. If you cleaned the app garage out you'd probably keep maybe 10.

Something needs to change. It's hard to discover new apps. It's also hard to keep customers. Meanwhile, the mobile web offers much of the functionality that an app can provide. For instance, there's a reason that Facebook has decentralized its app approach: Facebook on mobile web is just as good as the app in many cases.

In the end, it's going to be interesting to see how Apple and Google react to the engagement issue for apps. Apple is defending the fort and reinventing a bit. Google is melding mobile web and apps with Instant Apps. Rest assured that both tech giants see the app data and are reacting.