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  • Macs, PCs and the Failure of the Web App

    By Joshua Kim June 29, 2010 9:54 pm EDT

    Two years ago I would have bet that the Mac/PC divide would have lost its salience by now. I thought that Web applications and RIA's (rich internet applications such as Adobe AIR) would have once and for all supplanted the client OS. That future has failed to come to pass.

    This fact has been brought home to me as I'm selecting my next computer - Mac or PC? This is a consequential choice, as I continue to utilize a range of client applications, not all of which are cross-platform.

    If applications were all delivered through the browser, such as Google Docs or Blackboard, then the Mac/PC choice would be less important. But some of the essential tools I use, particularly authoring tools, are client only. On the Mac side these applications include ScreenFlow and iMovie. Even the cross-platform client applications that I use all the time, such as Techsmith Camtasia Relay and Camtasia Studio store their files and data locally instead of in the cloud.

    Perhaps when the Google Chrome OS comes out, accompanied by a range of cheap but robust Chrome OS netbooks, we will begin to see an erosion of the Windows/Mac divide. A netbook built for and around Google apps through the Chrome browser may be pretty compelling. But maybe not - as even the best browser apps can't seem to match the user quality experience of client applications.

    Some thoughts on why the Web app has failed to takeover:

    1. Client Apps Are Just Better: You can only get so far with AJAX and other programming wizardry, as the browser is an inherently limited platform.

    2. Improvements in OS X: It may be that the Apple has taken the market share of users (and mindshare) that we thought would migrate to browser based apps and the cloud. OS X is simply a great operating system - rock solid, fast, gorgeous and intuitive. Apple brings us in with beautiful hardware and a great operating system, and keeps us with client applications (both their own and 3rd party) that work so nicely with Apple's integrated hardware/OS approach.

    3. The Mobile App: The real innovation nowadays does not seem to be browser based applications (although I'm continually impressed with Google's productivity tools), but at the app. Lightweight and cheap, the app (whether it be for the iPhone/iPad/Touch or Android devices) is where the excitement is. We will continue to do many things with full-blown client software, like multimedia authoring etc., but other tasks (particularly social tasks) will migrate to the mobile device and the app.

    How does the stalling of the web App transition impact education and learning technology?

    I worry that the browser based LMS is starting to feel more kludgy and limited each day. Perhaps Google has the resources to create a wonderful browser based user experience, I'm not convinced anyone else does. I'm also wondering if mobile apps for education, such as Blackboard's Mobile Learn, will end up being robust enough to offer learning and collaboration experiences above and beyond the browser version.

    Why and how does the Mac/Windows choice matter for you? Do you see the importance of the OS divide decreasing in the future? Are you a Mac or a PC?

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Comments on Macs, PCs and the Failure of the Web App

  • One more factor...
  • Posted by K Klein , Computer Studies at Onondaga Community College on June 30, 2010 at 7:15am EDT

  • No viruses or malware. I don't have time to deal with them. I am (still) a Mac.

    Though the "cloud" might arrive this year when Apple turns on their server farm in NC. We shall see...

  • I'm a Mac, but I speak fluent PC
  • Posted by A on June 30, 2010 at 8:15am EDT

  • The Mac OS is so much nicer and much more user-friendly, but there's still no Apple netbook, so I also use a PC. (I have an iPad, but its functionality is too limited.) But the real Mac bonus? I can run Windows on my Mac - I can't run OS X on my PC.

  • How do we know we can trust the cloud?
  • Posted by TM , Educational Tech Specialist at Georgia State on June 30, 2010 at 9:15am EDT

  • How can I know my files, my institution's files, are secure if everything is in Google's or Apple's or Microsoft's cloud? It's a great technology for convenience and sharing, but I am not convinced about security and privacy. Remember the notorious release of the "anonymous" AOL search results a few years ago? We still need to keep many of our files locally, sometimes as dictated by law, which means the OS still matters in a big way.

  • Kludgy?
  • Posted by Ken McElath , Professor at Covenant College on June 30, 2010 at 9:45am EDT

  • Hey, check out some new kids on the block for a non-kludgy LMS. How about Schoology? Looks like Facebook and very, very simple. Don't look to the 800-pound gorillas to get to the next level with an LMS. They move too slow.

  • Other improvements?
  • Posted by Roblind on June 30, 2010 at 11:00am EDT

  • How about acknowledging improvements in Windows too? With Windows 7 and Office 2007/2010, users also have a rock solid, fast, gorgeous, secure and intuitive experience.

    On another note, for the time being I agree that browser apps don't match the user quality experience of client applications. My experience with this exists mostly with productivity apps like office documents or website development through the browser. These are convenient but just not up to the quality of a client experience.

    Overall, I'm just not there with the vision of exclusive cloud computing because I'm not comfortable with being dependent on an internet connection for everything nor having all my files stored on someone else's servers. Frankly, the cloud computing vision makes me feel less empowered as a user.

  • Fear of Clouds
  • Posted by Stu on June 30, 2010 at 7:00pm EDT

  • This fear of clouds stealing your data is unfounded. With Dropbox, your data is stored not only in the cloud, but on every computer you have dropbox installed on. I have more backups now than ever, and with no work at all.

  • Posted by TechieLibrarian on June 30, 2010 at 7:00pm EDT

  • I agree with TM that the cloud has a range of potential problems, although the benefits are also fairly compelling.

    The OS will decrease in importance as web-tools gain in functionality, but as you noted there's a wall you hit in terms of how far you can go.

    The ability and incentive to easily code applications to move into different OSes is going to be the real key I suspect. Well designed code isn't that bad to port, it's just a question of the financial incentives. Those also help inspire code better designed to be ported, which makes it more cost effective and so on.

    Apps might help that, since the mobile market is still open to have enough diversity of OSes that it becomes economical to port apps into multiple markets. The iOS and Apple's terms against using outside development tools make that harder (intentionally so it seems to help avoid people doing this), but if there is enough pressure from Android, Blackbery, Windows 7, and PalmOS we might see a shift there.

  • mac pc cloud
  • Posted by John C. Jones , natural sciences at Calhoun Community College on June 30, 2010 at 10:15pm EDT

  • Since I am split between two platforms, pc at work and mac for personal, I have found the cloud is vital for keeping my work in sync. Dropbox, gdocs, etc make the process easier.

  • Posted by Paige on July 1, 2010 at 11:15am EDT

  • Based on a year of happy iPhone 3G use, I just switched from PC to Mac. Instead of MS Office, I am using the free OpenOffice suite, which has worked okay so far. GoogleDocs and DropBox are working successfully as cloud backups for me. As a professional archivist, I would recommend the LOCKSS approach: Lots Of Copies (dispersed) Keep Stuff Safe.

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