ChasingTheFlow

Apps are too much like 1990's CD-ROMs and not enough like the Web

Scott Hanselman:

I’m starting to resent Apps like I resented CD-ROMs.

I started playing this evil little game called Tiny Tower last week. It’s effectively a Sim-Tower-heroin-clone-resource-management game. Every few hours I return to feed the beast make sure the little “Bitizens” are OK. Moving things, managing resources, restocking virtual shelves with new virtual goods. Mindless and addictive, but pointless.

The Update Beast

I realized that I’m doing the same thing with the apps on my phone. I’m always feeding the Update Beast. How often have you looked at Non-Technical Friends phone and showed them how they need to update their apps? All the time.

Scott agrees with David Winer that apps have a long way to go and posits the hard to dispute notion that web apps and native apps are constantly pushing each other forward. Linking between native apps has taken baby steps in the right direction — savvy developers can link between supported apps, but they still lack the seamless integration and automatic updates seen on the web.

(Continue on Scott’s Blog)

UPDATE: Worth reading this clarification from Dan Winer