5 Reasons why Apps will win!
Monday, July 19, 2010 at 5:43PM Ten years ago I worked to a company called PeopleSoft. Do you remember it? It was killed by Oracle. Sorry, let me rephrase that: It was taken over by Oracle. PeopleSoft introduced a technology in 2000, called PeopleSoft Internet Architecture or PIA for short.
It was a 100% HTML based business application.
At the beginning, everyone was thinking that engineers at PeopleSoft had gone mad! People were saying you can't compare a simple HTML page, with a full featured, windows-based client. Well, today we have hundreds of HTML based software applications. PeopleSoft was not only right. They marked the way for the next decade!
Windows vs Web was the discussion of the beginning of the first decade of this century. The second decade ispresenting us a new one: Apps vs Web. I believe that the battle will be won by the apps.
Here you have five reasons why:
1. The App Stores: The app stores are changing the way software is sold and distributed. They offer services that other software distributions channels do not. It is true that the concept already existed with web sites like download.com, versiontracker.com and others. However, the level of centralizations that the app stores are introducing are adding greater control to the users and another level of simplicity. See the examples of the iTunes App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, etc.
2. Optimized for the Hardware: Native apps run much faster than HTML, Javascript or Flash. They consume far fewer resources and they can exploit the unique capabilities of the devices where they run. The user experience is much better and personal with apps than with web pages. The developers also have far more options to present information and interact with the users.
3. Diversity of devices: The diversity of devices makes it very difficult for standard technologies to succeed. How would you navigate an HTML page in a television? What about in a car? Maybe you would do it using voice commands? Each device has its own characteristics and they can only be exploited correctly if the software does it. Standards grow much slower than specialized hardware and software and in current times, it is all about speed.
4. The users: People like Apps and use them. This is by far the most important reason.
5. The power of the internet is also behind the apps: Web pages and applications are just a tool to distribute web services. Apps are also tools but they are much more capable of taking advantage of the Internet. Web sites are everywhere, but apps are not only everywhere, they are specialized in only one specific task and device, which is the one you need in the moment you need it.
So, do you agree or disagree? It would be great to get your feedback, so let us know what YOU think!
The author of this blog is part of the team who created the first Electriccar Simulator for iPhone called iEV. With this iPhone App people is able to know which Electric Car is good for them before buying one, helping them to save money.
Reader Comments (10)
I completely agree, and would further your point #4. It's not just that people are using them, I think the popularity of the app metaphor is well received by most people as it fits better with expectations.
E.g. in a mobile setting, people are more likely to use the CNN app than they are to visit the CNN website. It's more user friendly in that case?
As other platforms move into this model it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Specifically of interest to me is the google chrome store and the google web tv app store, coming soon.
Thanks for your feedback Richard.
I am also waiting to see how Google Chrome market is going to look like. Google's strategy in this case is not very clear to me yet.
Thanks again!
I completely disagree. Most apps are simply glorified Web sites to begin with. Here's an experiment: switch your iPhone in Airplane Mode. Then count the percentage of applications you have that can do anything -- anything at all. You will find that 98% of them are more useless than one of the many fart applications out there.
Most mobile applications are simply glorified Web browsers dedicated to specific Web sites. As a Web site owner, what sense is it to require my customers to download and install software for every other developer change to my Web site? This is madness.
How much sense does it make from a desktop perspective to write custom Web browsers for your Web site that run on the huge variety of mobile devices out there? And for consumers to download and install custom Web browsers for each of the Web sites they frequent on their device? The idea simply does not scale.
Going back to Peoplesoft, the argument against HTML then was that the user features it provided was horribly primitive compared to the workflows possible with a Windows-based app. Then add AJAX, jQuery, etc., over time, and of course Peoplesoft was right. Web-based software freed them from client-based updates, software distribution, etc.
So why suddenly would all those bad things for the desktop be good things for the mobile Internet? Apps are popular because the mobile Web formatting standards are primitive -- much like the desktop Web standards were over a decade ago. They will improve, and when they do, my business Web site won't need to publish and update 47 different mobile apps to support all the devices out there.
Mobile apps are a dinosaur in the making. Mark my words.
Thanks so much for your feedback Greg!
Don't worry. I did not write that web applications will disappear. I do believe they have a very strong market.
The desktop applications market continued growing during the last decade at a steady pace, but the web applications market has grown much faster. This is what I believe it is going to happen with the apps market. It is going to grow much faster than the browser based applications. It follows the pattern of any disrupting technology in any industry. There is a business book describing very well disrupting technology behavior called http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279633547&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">"The Innovators Dilemma" written by Clayton M. Christensen.
They key is always speed. Here you have an example: There is a very stupid app in the App Store called "Breath Test". You tap on a big button and blow at the microphone. Depending where you tapped the button, the app will tell you if you have good or bad breath. You could write it in Javascript without problems cause it does not use any proprietary API. Now imagine if Apple builds a sensor and a set of APIs that allows a phone to really smell. By the time that the API is available to be called from the browser, you will have 1000 apps already taking advantage of the new feature. In terms of market size it means apps will be ahead of web for this feature. And this will happens with any new feature in any new device.
For these reasons I believe that the browser based applications market will continue growing at a steady pace, but the apps market will grow faster and bigger.
Thanks again for your feedback. I really appreciate it!
Long live client server!!! Isn't it funny how the IT industry just goes round in circles, from large centralized computers with dumb terminals to client server then to large computers with dumb terminals (called the internet) and now back towards client server!
Yes, I think you're right and so is Greg. At the moment they are just glorified web-browser applications but that is what a client-server desktop App always was.
I am also interested on what platform these apps are going to be written on/in. Is Adobe Air going to be the PDF of the Internet-App???
Thanks for the feedback Chris!
Yes, it is very funny how it goes around in circles.
I've found a very good post about mobile development platforms yesterday. It is a very good analysis. Take a look at it: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4204684/Mobile-Application-Development" rel="nofollow">Mobile application platforms: A developer's perspective
What the point? No money there...
Thanks for your feedback William!
You are right. There is no money in the apps per se. The money is not produced by the platform. It is always produced by the service you give to the users. The "fart applications" do not produce any money. On the other hand, there are companies producing very good profits with apps. It is like the web in the late nineties.
Thanks again!
Hello Guillermo,
Speaking as an app's intensive consumer, here's my guess: The apps market will grow to become an important percentage of the software market. Moreover it will create demand where there is no market today. It will do so thanks to the hardware sector, that is creating a gadget for every need. The client server architecture might seem that we're back to the old days, however I see a big difference here, a transversal revolution that will make the software market ubiquitous as never before. The reason for this is that the hardware has gone powerful and cheap. In the same way, I can't separate the internet and the app market development. I can see them as the same thing, new projects will include the web site and the apps.
best regards,
Roger
Good feedback Roger!
That's the main point. Apps are another efficient way to deploy services over the Internet. More specialized hardware and software creates a better user experience and that's the key.