Apps. It seems the be the buzzword of the past couple years, as if the world only just discovered that their computers and other smart devices could actually run software. For years, only über-geeks would sit around discussing the best programs and debate the merits of one operating system or browser over another. Today, even non-techies that would have never even touched a PC now ask their friends if they’ve downloaded a certain app. Friends that would have never known what version of Windows their PC used now discuss on Facebook whether Android or iOS is better.
I happen to love apps, both web apps and native apps. I use a wide variety of Mac and iOS apps daily, along with the many web apps I rely on. But isn’t that a bit odd? I mean, I’m the editor of Web.AppStorm.net, and write documentation and do tech support for Flow, a web app. If even I use native apps, then does that mean the cause is lost for web apps?
We don’t just use one platform
Back in the day, most of us would have only used one platform. Perhaps DOS. Later, Windows, or Mac OS Classic. Or Linux, in one of its 14.5 million flavors. Perhaps you had a cell phone or PDA as well, but neither of those were really computing devices. And the internet was so slow, just reading the news was painful.
Thus, we’d usually only use software for the platform we used. We’d search the shelves of Best Buy and smaller computer stores for software that said “Designed for Windows 98”, or whichever OS you were using. And that was it. You’d never buy apps that ran on other OSes.
Today, the computing landscape is much more dynamic. You might start your day on an iPad, work during the day on a Windows PC, use a smartphone on your breaks, and finish up the evening on your MacBook.
That’s why web apps make so much sense today: they work everywhere, and you don’t even have to worry about getting your data on all of your devices. But it’s also why native apps have become so popular again. Our devices are smarter than ever, and there’s no reason not to take advantage of their full power. If your Mac has beautiful graphics apps, and your iPhone has addictive touch apps, and there’s this great game you like that runs on Windows, there’s no reason you can’t have them all. Even if you do still love web apps.
Native apps are awesome, too
Web apps definitely have their advantages. They can run on any browser, tap server computing resources that are way more powerful than your devices, and easily network with others since the software is on the cloud. They’re not tied down to a native look, so they can come in all shapes and sizes.
But native apps have their own perks. They run locally, even if you’re offline, and even if the developer quits supporting the app, hey, it can still run as long as you want on your device. Native apps can take advantage of your own hardware; iWork will open much faster from a SSD, but Google Docs will only open as fast as your internet connection. They can integrate better directly with your device, using more of your native hardware like accelerometers and more, than web apps can now. And native apps can be beautiful, too.
Perhaps the best thing about native apps is how they can all work together. If I want to preview an image file in Preview on my Mac, then edit it in Photoshop, and finally add it to a presentation in Keynote or PowerPoint, it’s not that difficult to the the file to work with all the apps. You can just open the file directly, save when you’re done, then open it in any other app. Right now, if you were going to, say, put a picture online for viewing with CloudApp, then edit it in Aviary’s apps, and then add it to a Google Docs Presentation, there’s no easy way to do it without uploading the file to each app, then downloading it to your computer and re-uploading it to the next app. That’s not exactly easy, to say the least. Hopefully this will eventually be easier, perhaps by web apps using Dropbox or another similar tool as an online file system of sorts, but today, native apps definitely have the interoperability and files side of things much better.
The web touches everything
Think of the native apps you use the most, aside from your browser. Chances are, at least a few of them either require the Internet to use them, or at least have optional online features. Email, RSS readers, and more would be useless without Internet connections, while others like Evernote or Kindle apps would be far less useful without Internet. Even Photoshop has a built-in option to share picture online! And if your app doesn’t have built-in syncing features, you can still sync the files you make with Dropbox.
Thus, the Internet has made native apps better. It’s brought many of the features we love about web apps to native desktop apps. Many of the most popular apps today wouldn’t exist without the Internet, and chances are you’ll install them from a download or a digital App Store. So, that gives you yet another reason to like web apps: they make native apps better!
Conclusion
Really, there’s no reason to not use the best app for the job, whether it’s a web app or a native app. We still love web apps, and are glad our readers are excited about them. But we still love native apps, too, and there’s no reason you can’t get excited about the latest edition of Creative Suite or a cool new iPad app just because it’s not a web app.