I have a bone to pick with Apple’s App store. Why do all the app developers need to pay a 30% fee to the device and OS developer? PC software makers never had to send 30% of their price to Microsoft or Dell? How did Apple get that kind of walled garden? As an outgrowth of the iTunes model, they’ve become the ditributor … but there is another lower-cost distributor out there: It’s called the internet.
Windows 8: The Wounded Bear From Redmond Awakens makes the case for Windows8 embracing the webapp model:
Windows 8 also allows browser-based apps to set up icons (tiles in Windows 8 parlance) on the Metro interface. Consider these tiles a shortcut to your favorite app/Web destination, displayed inside a fully-functional browser. The other model for Web apps consist of single-function apps that reside solely on the Metro interface. When opened, they display like a desktop app, without any browser infrastructure.
There is one thing webapps do. They turn downloaded software into a service. The WebApp SaaS model disintermediates ALL distributors, whether it be BestBuy, Amazon … or Apple. Moreover, WebApps make the OS once again largely irrelevent – users wont care between iOS, windows8 or Android, so long as they can run their tools.
What does this mean? WebApps will disrupt Apple’s App dominance. We will have a rich set of choices as consumers in a RichWebApp world.