Day: June 18, 2005

Impact of Cheap PCs

Slashdot points to an article by Clayton Hallmark: “He predicts that cheap Asian computing appliances with an Open Source Operating System on a chip will be the ultimate MS killer. References to the US$220 Mobilis out of India suggest the begining of newer, more powerful, and cheaper things to come. Mr. Hallmark also points to the success of the Wal-Mart cheap PC as proof the end is near for proprietory software.”

Mass-produced computers can KILL Microsoft and free the world’s computer users. They’ll be too cheap to accommodate MS Windows — MS’s bread and butter. Computers will go the way of TVs and VCRs — cheap offshore (non-USA) production. They’ll be cheap, simple, general-purpose (FREE SOFTWARE), all-electronic (no disk drive) — in other words, real electronic computers, finally.

Rethinking the Web

Digital Web Magazine writes:

1. Web applications only have one advantage over desktop applications: universal access and no need for a local installation.
2. Desktop applications have many advantages over Web applications, including: more powerful, faster, denser information displays; more robust interaction models; lusher presentation environments; easier natural integration into customized information and personal data collection
3. Given the ubiquity of connectivitythe ability to be online almost anywhere, at any time, on any digital devicethe one advantage the Web has is reduced to a software issue. A client-side application can leverage the interactive powers of the Web just as easily as a server-side application

Were very close to the tipping point. The boundary now is hardware. Once devices like flash memory (portable plug-and-play memory that fits in a wallet) have the capacity to hold software applications, the notion of Web applications will reach the point of imminent obsolescence.