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Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

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Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#161

Post by viksit »

While I’m always skeptical of no code systems, this is the first one that seems to bring to the web what Visual Basic And Access did for Windows — VBscript, GUI driven layouts and connectors, and eventually the pipeline of programmers who went from VB to VC++ and Java.

Amazon also has the Microsoft—esque brand to really drive this into the Zeitgeist. IMO this might be the most game changing product they have launched recently given how much of a business impact it can have if distributed well. But therein also lies its biggest challenge - Amazon hasn’t historically been good at offering their services to the small businesses and consultants that could leverage this and build for the long tail. I wonder if they have a strategy for that.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#162

Post by hnick »

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #57
themodelplumber wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like what you're saying. Would just add that if my mother and father are the audience, I fear your solution would be unfairly docked a couple stars just for existing online and in software form. They would much prefer that any app exist as the result of a 10-minute phone call. ;-)

Care to explain? I didn't fully understand. You mean they prefer to call someone for 10 minutes and pay them to build the app? Or a recommendation to use an existing app?

I think they mean call a person to have done. Like booking a room or ordering food.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#163

Post by careyrouse »

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #55
VRay wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, man, this looks like a beefed-up version of Excel macros Anyone who can write working spreadsheet macros could probably just learn to actually program. Maybe they aren't going to be making the next RTX Voice or proving P=NP, but I'll bet they could crank out some CRUD

I did a lot of customer interviews. And I mean a lot. People that are good at using Excel (as in, not just create a table with data, but know how to use it, do macros, pivots, etc), if the need arrives they just move up the chain to Access/Filemaker. I would say Excel is their gateway drug to coding. Maybe now they will move to Honeycode perhaps (if the UI is ok) The ones that can't use Excel past putting =A1+A2*0.2…

With all the customer interviews you've done, what roles and what industries are the ones you believe to have a larger number of these users who are good at Excel, who are ready to move up the chain to Access/Filemaker?

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#164

Post by janstice »

basch wrote: post #116
llimos wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, especially when you add Power Automate and Power Apps - MS have been quietly pulling ahead in this space. They also have one huge advantage that no-one else besides maybe Google have - integration with Office 365: your corporate directory, email, filestore... Which means they don't even need to be the best at this kind of product. Good enough, plus the integration, is a game changer.

Office 365 AND Dynamics (CRM, Finance, ERP etc.) The one thing Microsoft really needs still is in house, industry specific layers to drop on top of dynamics, such as https://www.mtwocloud.com/ instead of depending on these third parties. Microsofts own sales teams don't know these products exist, and they have poor visibility. Enough companies won't even touch Dynamics, preferring something more industry specific. Lo…

Microsoft does have industry accelerators that sit on the Common Data Model & Dynamics, so ISV's (and presumably in-house devs) can write industry-specific solutions that might hopefully play nicely together:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/common-data-model/industry-...

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#165

Post by chiefalchemist »

exclusiv wrote: post #153
chiefalchemist wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things to add: 1) Agreed. Writing the code is the easy part. Determining and defining what to build? That's the magic. 2) In the wrong hands, making things too easy can be detrimental. First, there's add too much, simply because you can. For instance, WordPress n00bs are notorious for adding too many plugins. Why? Because they can. The second reason is, changing too soon without enough data, without enough user i…

To add to that - Determining and defining what to build is not magic unless you write simple and elegant code that delivers on-time and on-budget. You can have all the magic in the world upfront with planning and have it fail spectacularly without the right execution that is accurate, on-time and on-budget.

That's true. Until you realize that the accurate execution that was on time and on budget actually built something that didn't actuslly meet the business needs. Then what?

Yes. Execution matters. But it's only as good as understanding the target. Miss that target (read: meet biz needs) and no one will say "Yeah. But it was great execution."

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#166

Post by andrewzah »

danudey wrote: post #155
cbdumas wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right about perceived barriers to entry, and I certainly didn't say (nor did I mean to imply) that anyone should "just" learn to code. But I think the promise of "apps without code" is a siren song, always ending in frustration. I'd never tell anyone that learning to code is easy (only that most people can do it with some hard work), but I would also never tell anyone that tools like this will make it…

My counterpoint (to your original point) is that it's not about writing code. Making an app like this and putting it online (with roughly the same level of features) requires: * Learning a backend language, like Python * Learning how to design a data model * Learning how to design an admin interface * Managing authentication, security, and performance * Learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript * Learning how to set up a uw…

> I still can't imagine going to the trouble of actually doing all of that if I can just log into HoneyComb and make everything nice and quick and just get it done.

That sounds all nice and good until one inevitably runs into limitations of the software. And then it has to be made again, this time from scratch.

> bashing it together with Django and deploying it to an EC2 VM is almost definitely not your differentiated value proposition

It never -was- the value proposition. Customers simply do not care about what stack you used in the first place. They will care when features don't get rolled out because of limitations. Or when bugs arise because developers duct-taped solutions together because of the limitations of their software-making software. Not that traditional apps are perfect, but that's one issue they don't have.

Yes, it is complicated, and if you're making a toy app it probably will suffice. But I would never rely on it for a business.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#167

Post by asah »

danudey wrote: post #155
cbdumas wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right about perceived barriers to entry, and I certainly didn't say (nor did I mean to imply) that anyone should "just" learn to code. But I think the promise of "apps without code" is a siren song, always ending in frustration. I'd never tell anyone that learning to code is easy (only that most people can do it with some hard work), but I would also never tell anyone that tools like this will make it…

My counterpoint (to your original point) is that it's not about writing code. Making an app like this and putting it online (with roughly the same level of features) requires: * Learning a backend language, like Python * Learning how to design a data model * Learning how to design an admin interface * Managing authentication, security, and performance * Learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript * Learning how to set up a uw…

There's one word counterpoint: Excel

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#169

Post by careyrouse »

justaguyhere wrote: post #19
alexashka wrote: post #10

This is like a movie you know 2 minutes in, is going to be a complete disaster, give it another 5 minutes and finally turn it off. You stumble upon it's imbd page some time later to discover it has a 3/10 rating and nobody went to see it. I don't see a single innovative idea in this product and I see plenty that's worse than the experience I had in Dreamweaver in year 2000.

This looks similar to Airtable, except Airtable UI seems nicer. Airtable is a Billion dollar company, tons of people are happily using it. I am no fan of Amazon, but I do not think it is as bad as you describe. Even if it is half as good as Airtable, this will take off, simply because of Amazon's weight behind it.

I agree, the users of Airtable love the UI. But it's mostly individuals and small companies. Airtable isn't practical for enterprises with its 50k row limit and extremely limited permissions.

With Honeycode being an Amazon tool, I would expect their targets are more enterprise. But even this tool is limited to 100k rows, so until that changes, this can't really be used at scale either.

There's still a gap in modern database apps combining scale, granular permissions and something made for non-technical users.

Re: Amazon Honeycode – build web and mobile apps without writing code

#170

Post by ajmurmann »

asah wrote: post #167
danudey wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My counterpoint (to your original point) is that it's not about writing code. Making an app like this and putting it online (with roughly the same level of features) requires: * Learning a backend language, like Python * Learning how to design a data model * Learning how to design an admin interface * Managing authentication, security, and performance * Learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript * Learning how to set up a uw…

There's one word counterpoint: Excel

It's interesting to me that Excel had a low barrier of entry, but more advanced stuff gets pretty unwieldy. I'm used to wiring complex SQL queries, but some Excel stuff takes me a while to understand.
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