One of the reasons I’ve always been skeptical, cynical, and generally a wet-blanket on browser-only software is unreliable networks. Everywhere I go – there isn’t a network connection.
So, any browser-only information I might need (email, documents, photos, etc) are completely inaccessible on my fully wifi-enable, ethernet-ready laptop.
I see two trends:
- Cheaper laptops and more powerful pocket-computer devices
- Wireless internet access available in more places
Of the two, I see the former moving much, much faster than the latter.
While there are huge strengths in developing browser-only software – namely:
- Considerably lower development and support costs than platform-specific desktop apps
- Ease of pushing out bug-fixes and updates
– not having the information I want because the network is down or unavailable is unacceptable. For those keeping track, yes, I’ve talked about this before