I am starting to see this message everywhere: mobile web development is the future. This time it is market analysis firm ABI Research:
“Ultimately, the long-term trend away from native applications to web-based applications means browser and web services engines will be increasingly important components in the mobile environment.”
Michael Mace has talked about it at length, I have mentioned this on more than one occasion. It’s happening.
Over the weekend, Fred Wilson wrote on his blog about the music industry and the future of streaming music. An important quote:
Over the next five years, the number of places and devices where you can’t get a speedy wireless connection is going to dwindle to maybe the car.
Ah, to dream! For 10 years we have talked about this day in mobile computing. Some will dread a world where we are always connected. But I see a world of possibilities.
This is the world my generation is waiting for and a world my two kids will understand innately.
Interesting products and services at your fingertips all the time on any computing device.
Software companies can bring them to you less expensively because we can write it for the web and gain huge cost efficiencies to deliver it.
Advancements in learning and teaching and growing that will match our individual lifestyles.
And, of course, an off switch when you want to be left alone.
More proof that Internet-based applications are finally arriving: Adobe jumps in with a scaled down version of Photoshop. (Read the announcement at Information Week.)
This follows on the heals of Intuit’s release of Quicken Online in early March. I talked about this trend in December, 2007 (read the article). It is a very important trend. As I said then and will repeat now, as big companies move online, suddenly the entire web-world has an air of legitimacy.
I started writing software for Palm handhelds in 1997 and, as they reached what I thought was critical mass in 2000, I kept waiting for the big boys to come on board and write applications. Intuit never did — they outsourced. Microsoft did with Office products but only because of the OS play. I expected to see name-brand companies, both aimed at business and gaming, writing portable versions of their software. It never happened.
So when I start seeing Adobe and Intuit, two of the biggest names in the desktop world writing web applications, I know we are not too far from main-stream web-based applications. It gives credibility to all of us looking in that direction. And it shows that the web can be used for more than looking things up and social networking.
For those who pay attention to such minutia, there was a big auction last week by the FCC. If you are unaware, the Federal Communication Commission auctions off bandwidth periodically. This bandwidth is the basis for all kinds of wireless transmissions, including bluetooth, wi-fi, CB radio, regular radio, etc. The bandwidth that was auctioned will come free next year and covers the spectrum of traditional broadcast television.
From a business perspective, this auction was interesting. Google fought very hard to get some restrictions on the use of this bandwidth. Most notably, the FCC required that the winning bidders must open the spectrum to all devices. For devices that use this bandwidth, you would hypothetically go to the store, buy a device and then choose which provider to use it with. In other words, you will be able to use your iPhone with Verizon services, if you so desire.
The second interesting impact of this auction is technical. This spectrum is very good at going through walls and over long distances. The former is a problem with cellular bandwidth; the latter a problem with wi-fi. In other words, with the right receiver, we could have mobile devices that have high-speed Internet connections everywhere.
Will this happen tomorrow? Of course not. But it does show that at least the big boys, AT&T and Verizon who bought 80% of the bandwidth for $17 billion, are very concerned about solving this problem.
I have struggled lately with Apple. For one, I am completely intrigued by the company and their products. On the other, I am completely scared of them.
Before I explain this comment, let me tell you how Mac vested I am. Not much, actually. The only Apple equipment I currently own is an iPod, and at that their low priced Shuffle, which does the trick for me because I am deathly afraid of breaking the screen and this one doesn’t have an LCD display. I have owned two of these, the first and second generation models. The first did the trick but after a while didn’t function correctly. I am soon in the market for a new laptop, however, and am intrigued by the Macs.
Apple poses a strange juxtaposition for me, as I started to say before. For one, I am completely intrigued by the company. It’s hype is amazing. More importantly, though, its design and software is unbelievable. There are very few companies who do this well and, frankly, it is very hard to do. I have often thought about interesting consumer electronic products but it is such a difficult market for a start-up. Apple’s form and function is through the roof. It works well and is sexy as all get-out, a killer combination for consumer electronics companies.
On the other hand, Apple scares me. If the egos there are this big with 7% market share, what would it be like if they had Microsoft’s share? I hate to think of that beast.
I mentioned earlier that my first iPod stopped working correctly after a while. It would forget its shuffle spot if I turned it off, making me start at the top of the play list again. I found a number of references to the problem on the web and no fix, just work arounds. Nothing from Apple, though. No acknowledgment of the problem, no fix for it, nothing. The device wasn’t even a year old when it started happening. Apple’s response, which you can’t email them anyway without paying them, was buy version 2.
But here I am, knowing that Apple will treat me this way, and still looking at a laptop from them. Ugh… I must be crazy to help feed that ego!
Elia Insider 