Dave Morin - What Applications?

What Applications?

What native applications are you running on a daily basis? What stays open on your dock (or start bar)?

I’ve found that the number of native applications I am running has been dwindling. My feeling is that this has been happening over the last couple of years. Or maybe, I’m just beginning to notice the larger implications of that thought.

The browser is becoming more important to people other than just those of “us” (early adopter types) that love the technology. Web 2.0 is coming. What happens when applications for say, small business, don’t need to be native anymore?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 7th, 2005 at 9:36 am and is filed under Technology. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

http://jeremiahlee.com Jeremiah

I have 10 applications in my dock. I agree with your observation that the number of desktop applications is diminishing. Mail, iCal, and NetNewsWire are the only applications remaining in my dock that could be made into a web application.

Honestly, I’ve tried many webmail interfaces and even G-Mail doesn’t cut it as a replacement for Mail’s highly intuitive and responsive UI. Accidentally hit the back button and watch it freeze in Safari. For my calendars, display and editing could be put online, but the browser limits functions like syncing with my iPod and/or cell phone.

If anything, I believe that web applications will be a counterpart — not a replacement — for desktop applications. In the more single task oriented areas, I’ve noticed a shift to the use of applications that are just interfaces to web-backends. I think that these instances will decrease with the introduction of Macromedia Flex and other rich UI platforms.

Also worth considering is how the importance of open formats increases with various interfaces manipulating the same data.