Vic Gundotra was speaking at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco, in response to Apple's announcement that 1.5 billion iPhone apps have been downloaded from the App Store.

Gundotra thinks that in the long-term, the more innovative mobile apps will be browser-based, not downloads. "What we clearly see happening is a move to incredibly powerful browsers," he said.

"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 even suggested that Apple boss Steve Jobs agrees with these views, despite the buzz around iPhone app downloads.

"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," said Gundotra.

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Google is putting its development where its mouth is, too. It just introduced a GPS location feature to its iPhone-friendly search engine website.