Matt’s recent post on our client strategy generated quite a bit of discussion.
In this video, David Smith chimes in with some thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of emerging technologies associated with web applications. Watch the video below to learn more about our thoughts on the future direction of web app vs. desktops apps.
Or download the Quicktime version (Caution! ~200MB file).
I can’t believe no one has posted a comment yet…
So after watching this I’m even more confused about the statement made about the future direction of the clients earlier. After watching this vid the main concepts I’m left with are:
A) Web apps are nice because they don’t have to be installed and you don’t have to rewrite them for different platforms.
B) Web apps have usability and UI issues that will never be fully overcome and a non-web applicaition will always provide a better experience to the user.
Are you hoping that one day flash and specialized web browsers give you the portability of Java while providing the look of a OS-native app? Why adopt a new technology when you already have that with Java?
Webapps are great when you aren’t always on the same system or don’t have permission to install something. Having a webapp version as a secondary alternative is essential but it shouldn’t be considered the platform of choice for the reasons outlined in the video.