Apple and Google seem to be the two companies people look up to, when trying to find out the future direction of the Web. With Internet as the foundation, these companies dictate what gets built on top. When the iPhone came out, a lot of developers started writing a lot of Objective C code. The Android based phones had a similar effect on the more “open” developers. With iPad, Apple renewed the interest that developers had with iOS programming. The mobile device became more serious now. The games became smarter, the apps became “full-featured” and the browser became more viewable. The aspect ratio of the iPads* were good enough for users to consume serious content.
Looking at the way freelancers were making money by developing iPhone and Android apps, I was convinced that learning Objective C or the Android SDK was a worthwhile investment. But then, Google came along and released the Chrome OS. Google’s thinking with the Chrome OS confuses me. How can they firmly put their feet on two boats and expect to travel for long? If every app is supposed to be rendered through the browser, why on earth did they have us interested in developing apps for the Android OS?? Or, is it that they don’t expect people buying/renting Chromebooks to play games or edit contacts? Apple’s strategy, on the other hand, is a little less confusing. As far as the developers are concerned, their tablet strategy seems like a logical extension of their mobile strategy: “Learn Objective C first. Then learn a few libraries to be able to write apps on the iPhone. Now, learn a few more libraries to be able to write apps on the iPad.” Logical. However, life was simpler before the iPad* for content publishers. Any content, had to be delivered in two forms, one for the PC* (with bigger aspect ratios) and other for the smart phone (with smaller aspect ratio). Whether or not you want to support the not-so-smart phones was a matter of taste (and also the demographic of your customer base). With the growing popularity of iPads and similar tablets, the content publishers are in a situation where they have to hide their cries with laughter! It is a great thing for their customers, you see. If the publishers can deliver content optimized for the iPad*, which, their new-age customers are now equipped with, they stand a chance of genuinely delighting their customers. But what happens to the tens of thousands of dollars that actually went into developing their iPhone app? Should they continue to support them? How do they make sure that all content is delivered in all three formats in a consistent way? Add to it, the multiple platforms in each format (e.g., Android and iPhone for the smart phone segment), what you have is a Royal Mess of multiple codebases! Remember that software development is not a core competency with many of these content publishers (like Media houses). They are most likely to outsource their software development work. Viewed in this light, it seems like Google has envisioned the right approach to this problem with their Chrome OS (and the accompanying Chromebooks). Everything is now going to be delivered through the Browser. So, technically, publishing on the Browser is the only skill-set needed to deliver content on any platform. Of course, you still have to optimize the content for the specific device, but the optimizing methodology will be the same everywhere. Roughly put, the Browser is the new OS! So, back to javascript and HTML 5, you developers!! If you find it hard to imagine glossy apps delivered through the Browser, then take a look at OnSwipe’s youtube video. So, what is it the dominant form of application development going to be in future? Device specific development or intelligent rendering of content through the browser? Obviously, both these approaches will exist parallelly for quite some time, but if I had to bet, I would bet that a lot of applications will be delivered through the Browser in the long run, just because it is a lot less messy that way. PC* – A desktop computer that could have a Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux Operating Systems.iPad*, iPads* – iPad and similar devices (like Samsung Galaxy Tabs)
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