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Will there always be new opportunities? Of course. At the moment, there are also still lots of opportunities for web applications.
I don't think this number is due to a lack of web applications to fit people's needs, but limitations of the wetware itself. This implies that there is a biological driver for web application consolidation. It also implies that whatever your app, you're already competing for "web app" time in the user's mind with some other site, even if it is completely unrelated. Futhermore, it implies that great non-consolidated apps actually cause some harm, assuming they take people away from other sites that are providing value to them.
Pure speculation on my part, of course. I just know that while I've seen a boatload of crazy-cool web applications, the number I use is fairly static -- I just shuffle some in and out every now and then.
Great question!
Retail products are totally different than software as service which is free. Thus the barrier for the user to try new stuff on the internet is zero comparing to buying something.
Also, the barrier to create automobile technology it's obvious very high and discouraging. However, enough costly innovation is occuring from the existing companies. Hubrid cars are becoming reality. A model car from sketch to manufacturing to get in the roads is at least a 5 year effort. Compare that to developing an app in 2 months!
People's wants seem unlimited, at least in the near term. If you accept that, the only limitation on the number of web startups is how many needs can be satisfied by software. (The web is just the current default software platform.) And since everything is turning into software nowadays, it seems likely that the infinite demand for new stuff translates into an infinite demand for new software.
On the XIX century people believed that everything has been invented.
Why the net should be different? It is still on a very early stage, we have only seen what it can provide. I think that there is plenty of room for new web startups!
Any time you encounter pain or desire (yours or somebody else's) that's information-related, you've stumbled upon the opportunity for a web and/or mobile startup. When you meet that need, people's demand for time online will grow to encompass what you've given them.
Always is too big a word. Perhaps in 50 years we will all have plugs into our brains, and we will just KNOW things - we don't have to read stuff anymore, we are just connected to the information. No more need for web applications, so no, I would not say that there will always be web applications, although there might be. Will there always be new opportunities? Of course. At the moment, there are also still lots of op…