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by dextorious
5287 days ago
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"""Desktop apps are becoming a niche. I used to have an e-mail client, a spreadsheet, word processor, groupware, project management and an IDE installed on my machine. Now all I need is a browser and a text editor (although it's Emacs).""" People say that, but I don't see it. The Mac App Store has sold millions of apps already. And the iTunes App Store has sold a BILLION native (non browser) mobile apps. If you only need is "a browser and a text editor" good for you. I need: a media player, a text editor, a word processor, an IDE, a chat client, Evernote, Dropbox, Skitch, Photoshop, VMWare Fusion, and some other stuff besides... |
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It all depends on where you look at. I can't remember the last corporate software piece I saw being delivered as a desktop application.
Stand-alone software for iOS has one advantage over web applications in that users sometimes face lack of connectivity. The Facebook app, IIRC, is delivered as a standalone app, but, in reality, is nothing but a web application. It's not alone and there are definite advantages to their approach. Most software appears to be entertainment - games, social thingies etc. They are the kind of games one would expect to be delivered as a Flash application within a brorser on a desktop.
I am not familiar enough with the Mac App Store, but, while there are some more "serious" offerings, in line with the desktop apps I mentioned, most of them appear to be, again, games and other entertainment related stuff. That and front-ends to net-centric applications such as Evernote.