R.I.P. - PC Software 1980-2007

       

 Yes, that is correct. We believe that nearly all client (PC/MAC) specific software – both consumer and business applications will go away in the next 2-3 years. Of course, you will still have a few applications like Adobe or Autodesk which will find life difficult as a Web application or service, and may not ever get there. But the majority of applications, will migrate to a web based model. There are simply too many reasons including economic ones for this not to be the case.

Here are a few reasons why web applications will rule the next wave of software applications:

User Interfaces
Over the years, the reason web application software was not very good or limiting was because of the poor user experience. There was no drag and drop, screens had to refresh often. That has all changed over the last several years with Web 2.0 technologies such as Ajax and Ruby on Rails. Today, web applications are getting very sophisticated and can do nearly everything that a comparable application on a pc or mac can do.

Google Calendar is a great example of a complicated application, with a simple and well executed user interface, that puts clunky Microsoft Outlook to shame. Writely, (recently purchased by Google) is another great example of web software that is nearly as good as any desktop word processing application.

Internet Everywhere
The other reason why software applications were not put onto the web was the need to have constant access to the data, when unconnected. Today, Internet connectivity is nearly everywhere with wifi cities, hotspots in airports, and services such as Verizon’s Broadband Wireless blanketing the nation. Soon Internet access will move to airplanes; one of the most difficult place to be unconnected. So, in short, the pain of not being connected to your application and data is minimized these days, with Internet connectivity nearly everywhere.

Multiple PC Syndrome
Five years ago, the average household had 1 pc. Today, that number is moving closer to 2, one for Mom/Dad, and another for the kids. Of course, add in your work pc and or laptop and you can start the synchronization games. Suddenly, the value of having access to your client application and data is de-valued as you don’t have access at home, when on one of your 2 PCs.

Sure some client applications have web interfaces into their data to solve this problem, but most are poorly done, and an afterthought to the rich feature set in the main product. So, in short, a web application can actually increase the availability of your data, not reduce it.

Business – Total Cost of Ownership
I am not sure why a business would want to maintain its own hardware, and software infrastructure to support some client software applications. If you have done it before, you know what a headache it can be. In addition, you often need to hire consultants to implement sophisticated client software applications – more money.

The alternative is a web application providing an on demand software solution available anytime, anywhere with no hardware and infrastructure headaches. You simply sign up, pay as go for your software usage – usually on a per user basis.

Today, web applications & services exist for most major business applications. Financial, ecommerce, customer relationship management, email marketing and human resources management are just a few areas where you can find a web application to support your business.

In conclusion, there are some limitations today, but you will be hard pressed to justify spending money (especially if you are a small business) to implement client software applications and maintaining them with your own infrastructure when you can increase your availability to your data, minimize your costs with a great web application to solve your specific business problem.