The Browser is the Computer

Years ago Sun CEO Scott McNealy said the Network is the Computer – Google hopes he’s right

Apple (News - Alert) can do no wrong - it never could. The company has always had zealous fans who considered Apple products to be like their own superficial entry into some sort of consumer electronics cult. I lived this firsthand when I was in MIS and I decided to deploy PC-based desktop publishing in the eighties. Talk about upsetting your art department. Partially as a result of these Apple loyalists, combined with Cupertino’s inferior position in the market, the company has been a media darling. It is so crazy, in fact, that Steve Jobs (News - Alert) has crossed over the line as a celebrity and is even tracked by gossip sites like TMZ.

But this status may be coming to an end since Apple decided it would become a censor and limit applications that can get into the iTunes App Store. Well, that isn’t entirely accurate, you see Apple not only censors what can get into the App Store and, quite often, applications that were approved earlier are pulled, sometimes after only a few hours. One of the more popular apps approved and pulled in fact was Google (News - Alert) Voice, which seems to have been the straw that broke the back of Apple’s positive PR camel, and resulted in a resounding outcry from the blogosphere.

But, while application stores are all the rage, and Nokia, Microsoft (News - Alert), and the rest of the free world try to build app stores, Google has taken a different direction in its public relations, proclaiming the browser is more important than the app stores. The company argues that Web-based applications are the future of the mobile space, not operating-specific software.

“Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser, and what that does for our costs is stunning,” said Vic Gundotra, Google’s engineering vice president and developer evangelist, according to a Financial Times (News - Alert) report. “We believe the Web has won and, over the next several years, the browser will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”

Google is hedging its bet, though, as it has its own app store, but I believe, at this juncture, that most non-Apple app stores are likely to be short-lived, and Google may be right about the power of the browser.

On a recent trip to Northern California, I met with one vendor who described an application they were developing for the iPhone (News - Alert). I immediately asked how they are getting around many of the iPhone limitations. As it turns out, the app is not really an app; rather, the company’s back-end solution works with the Safari browser on the iPhone.

For me, this was the “a-ha moment,” as the browser on the iPhone is great and allows developer to build some very robust and interesting solutions. The lack of Flash support is a major drawback, but that is a discussion for another day.

After that meeting, I got to thinking about what the value of the App Store censors are in the first place. If you have an open browser, you are able to visit porn sites, malicious sites and anything else you choose. This leads us to the question of why the App Store even has restrictions on applications with questionable content. It is perplexing, considering the browser isn’t censored.

Since my return from Silicon Valley I have heard more and more talk of developers releasing browser-based versions of their solutions. While this won’t work for all apps, it is a great way to get past Apple censors for now.

It is worth mentioning Google Voice will likely have a browser version soon and, when it does, we will get to see for ourselves the limitations of browser-based apps versus those written for native platforms. And as this docudrama plays out I am sure Scott McNealy is watching closely, popcorn in hand. IT

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