Technology is hurtling forward, and we can of course see it all around us. Back in the day of Sanyo feature-phones, when you needed a service tech to gain access to the camera photos and transfer your contacts, we weren’t thinking of the apple watch and moto 360’s adorning our wrists. And we didn’t have nest.
But we now have, and for the most part understand, our Ecosystems. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Blackberry (!), kindle (!!), and more. This number is getting smaller, and with good reason. Competition plays an important role, but so does the push for perfection and eventual implementation of open standards; to progress and move higher, achieve more. As we start to look at developing a truly connected internet of things, we can’t be fussing about whether the new apple lamp is compatible with my google home, and my 3d contacts aren’t materializing in my holodex, and my kindle books aren’t displaying covers in Retina on the shelves, because I was using a plugin that got exploited and needs to be patched …right? I mean, maybe that’s what we’ll see – The big three, maintaining market share and providing separate closed ecosystems in an internet of things. Lots to think about here…
Competition plays an important role, but so does the push for perfection and eventual implementation of open standards; to progress and move higher, achieve more.
But anyhoo, to the point. I’ll try and stay focused. Operating Systems have native apps. So does your smartphone. But those same smartphone apps are mostly running on a CMS, and actually a web application stored online somewhere. (Tech-heads are rolling their eyes…) Soon, there will be no distinction at all between the two, and a single OS for the big three to rule them all, or whatever. We’re halfway there, Fine. Netflix anyway you want it. Android, IOS, or Windows. Plug your phone and keyboard in, desktop OS. Sweet. AND. The adoption of open-source app development and the evolution of app stores have been lowering the bar for creative types, and tons of talent and startups are developing for platforms. Cool apps!
Kind of like cool scripts. App development for a platform is becoming just a window into a web application, which is hosted online. It’s kind of like responsive app development, even as a website. If it’s a CMS, it’s an application, talks to a database, and probably hosts tons of your sensitive data (in the cloud). I love it when my friends think they are maintaining some kind of security by not taking advantage of new cloud-based offerings, like Drive or Dropbox, or instant upload, or iCloud. Technically, as soon as you started using the web, it was in the “cloud”. The definition of “the cloud”, in reference to the buzzword, has much more to do with scalability and robustness of the technology, rather than storage. It’s about running apps in a browser window, nothing to do with your precious photos you don’t trust with google (even when you’ve been passing them back and forth for years using gmail).
I got sidetracked again. Maybe it’s not Gpress (when google buys WP), with modular themes and plugins already offering turnkey app creation, but the adoption trend and development practices seem to look a lot like their OS counterparts. With powerful browser-based web apps like Evernote, twisting the app development across platforms is simple; less focus on the app, more focus on responsive development with the web app itself.
I have a love/ hate relationship with Apple. I dread the day when my desktop experience fades and shapes into it’s IOS desktop counterpart, but maybe that would be the day Adobe apps are launched for Chrome OS. If you hear me apple, I have some interesting thoughts at times, and would love to share them with you.
