Even our gracefully fast cellular internet connections in Japan still present one significant roadblock to accessing data through web-based applications: No network – No productivity.
Can a web-app ever replace a native smartphone app? Not likely without significant enhancements in cellular and Wi-Fi infrastructure.
Take Google Apps for example. We all know that Google is a heavy pusher of their web-based applications. With tools like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and that OS-killing Chrome, Google in fact does a great job rolling out it’s web app offerings.
Unfortunately though, Google has a hard time pushing the majority of its web apps without a continuously live internet connection.
With smartphones [like the iPhone] growing in popularity and not expected to go away anytime soon, it seems wise for developers like Google to build apps that integrate natively and allow some [hopefully large] degree of offline synchronization — similar to the way Google allows the iPhone mail app to act as a Gmail client.
Granted, internet connectivity has come a long way since the days of 28.8 Kbps modem dial-ups to Sprynet. And albeit much better now, there’s no such thing as ‘always on’ connectivity as it relates to cellular.
So for now, Google Apps and other web-apps for smartphones will continue to suffer that common web app dilemma: No network – No productivity.
As we say “You can't be network centric without a network”
March 3, 2010 @ 01:55