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Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#61

Post by Sindrome »

qusiba wrote: post #18

My boss told me, you can not sell a web application on App Store, that's why we have to hire an iphone programmer to build a client app.

I have a few 30 hour weekend projects I could turn into web apps easier than iPhone apps. There is no way anyone would pay 1-2 dollars just to use these apps on the web (among other things). I don't build anything unless it has utility and in this case, the utility is the few hundred these apps could bring in with only a few hours of dev/ui time. In this case an App is the way to go. Obviously, I don't expect to make big money from these apps. But the few hundred I would make just from putting the app on the store and doing some half ass marketing makes it worth developing.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#62

Post by smokey_the_bear »

More people would use desktop apps if they were easier to install. I tried to talk my mom through installing skype the other day, and we hit a snag. So she just used the video chat in gmail. Skype would have been better for her for various reasons, but she settled. If Skype were in an app store, she'd have bought it.

I install way more software when I'm in a linux environment, since it's just one simple command to do so.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#63

Post by danboarder »

It's not a zero-sum game with native vs web apps. The web will not kill native apps, but for many applications the web offers a better platform than native development. For example, look at the rise of GMail's web client over MS Outlook - for many users a web client is easier, with mail accessible from any device with a browser.

New HTML5 features will extend these advantages to more types of apps beyond webmail. The same question came up over at Quora, with thoughful responses: http://www.quora.com/Is-HTML5-the-mobile-app-killer

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#64

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

jwr wrote: post #19

I wish HN had a filtering system. I don't know why each of his blog posts makes it all they way to the top — I don't find them that insightful or interesting. I would much rather read about software & hacking. Or is there a JavaScript solution? Has someone implemented a HN filter?

  > I would much rather read about software & hacking.
Cool - I'd like to read about those things too. Did you upvote the three things on software and hacking that I submitted in the past week or so? Have you submitted any that I could upvote?

  > Or is there a JavaScript solution?
  > Has someone implemented a HN filter?
If you're into software and hacking, perhaps you could provide one for us.

And to more-or-less answer your question, HN was originally "Startup News" and has always had a bent towards startups. It was widened to "Hacker News," but it still retains that bias. Strict hacking isn't hitting the majority audience, it's still heavily slanted towards the startup scene, and things that interest people who do, or want to do, startups.

That's why Jacques' posts are interesting to people - they are the musings and observations of someone who has started and runs several software and web based businesses. Hence they resonate with the majority audience.

But I'd be happy to see and promote anything you post about software and hacking.

Where's your blog?

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#65

Post by protomyth »

I haven't seen Call of Duty or Final Cut Pro in the web yet. Native applications haven't given up the ghost yet and I really don't expect them to. They are more responsive to the user and easier to build.

Other than the link 6ren http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2371909 provided for the Fallacies of Distributed Computing, I believe the problem for apps on the web are the crappy state of web client development. Project Builder / Interface Builder or the 1st version of Visual Studio can build better apps than tool today in an easier manner.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#66

Post by tobylane »

It's not just the difference in app numbers, in app quality, in app language (you can probably do more with 1gb of memory in objc than java), but it's the integration, the user experience. On the computer, it's all well and good doing everything on your browser, but unless you're in full screen mode you're seeing something other than the page you're on. Apple does that bit best. (and others, but it's further ahead in the look of the out-of-app bits)

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#67

Post by myshoppio »

interesting, I would say this is no different to any other inovation we have had in the past. Look at the car for instance it doesn't matter how fast it can go according to it's speedometer or what version of gas you buy, you are limited to the speed limit on the road you are travelling on at that time. So mobile Telco's will need to play a more direct role in delivering content more efficiently, for instance why have all the infrastructure laid out and bandwidth paid for for all the $$$ flying past which they can't get in on. Why not host something, apps, search, whatever and make mobile data, faster and more efficient. Hell how come no matter what TV you have you can get a decent picture without any download issues. Maybe we are too focused on hardware and not delivering stable, fast, realtime content.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#68

Post by yewweitan »

daleharvey wrote: post #58
toddmorey wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardware isn't only getting faster, it's also getting more innovative. Here's a really important point: The new capabilities of the hardware (like accelerometers, for example) will always come to native apps first. Color couldn't be a webapp. There's natural urge from develops to want the full potential of a device. Meanwhile, no device maker is going to wait for their new feature to become a web standard before…

you dont wait for things to become web standards before shipping, you make them standards by shipping them

So true. Which is a both a great thing and a bad thing as Doug Crockford pointed out here - http://www.infoq.com/interviews/doug-crockford-html5

Essentially, he's saying that innovation by browser vendors drives innovation in general to a great degree. However, it hampers the ability of standards to do the work in some areas which need standards (such as Security).

I'd expect it to be the same with app side of things, especially with so many vendors trying to get their slice of the pie.

eg: HP's WebOS is supposedly a sort of hybrid web-native combo, RIM now has QNX, Qualcomm has Alljoyn for P2P and is pushing some fancy LTE frameworks. And let's not even get into Near-Field Communications (pretty hardware dependent) and the future of mobile payments =p.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#69

Post by Qz »

maxklein wrote: post #48
Qz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we solve these two problems, by making all web based apps download their logic to the client, and by disappearing the browser entirely, then that's a native app. It's running locally and it's independent of the browser. I agree with you on this, although the one quibble I can see is that part of the appeal of web apps has been the idea that you (the user) don't have to update them, because that all happens on the…

Chrome auto-updates, you never realise it.

Right, Chrome is basically the only program that auto-updates correctly. But in the context of the myriad other programs that try to auto-update and fail miserably, or worse, I think my point stands.

Re: Ios, Android, WP7 - who cares?

#70

Post by iwwr »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #52
revorad wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an analogy, not meant to be taken literally.

you may want to talk to all the people who take the idea quite seriously as a critique of market speed in reaching equilibrium.

It just means that you can have large numbers of participants being wrong and so, by their sheer weight become unmanageable to a smaller entity which however has the correct picture. This is why short-selling is not for the faint of heart. You need to know not just that the market is wrong, but when it will realize it is wrong.
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