Windows Apps: Losing Marketshare?

[dvduval]

As I look at what google is doing, it seems that soon most so called "applications" are going to be run through the browser, and when it comes to things like photoshop, word, excel, powerpoint, outlook and much more, there are alternatives that are free, and run through the browser. Already over the last year, there has been tremendous progress in this area, and by the end of the year, we'll start to see computers that mainly run off the net, and don't even require powerful hardware.

Do you think windows apps are going to get marginalized?
How can a marketer best leverage this trend?

[bumfluff]

To be honest, I think it's a bit of a fad. I just don't see any real benefits. Ok, I can access applications on any computer that's hooked up to the internet, but then again, I have portable versions of a lot of applications on a USB stick so I can do that anyway (without needing a net connection). Downsides are that you have bandwidth restrictions so the application simply can't be as fast or comprehensive as the desktop equivalent (I'm particularly thinking of something like Photoshop), you're stuck if your net connection goes down, and then there's the data protection issue - I wouldn't be happy storing any client information on someone else's server.

I can see it being useful in certain circumstances, like when you have teams working collaboratively, but I think in a lot of cases, the online app idea is being implemented for the sake of it. Once the novelty wears off, I think we'll start getting more specialised applications that genuinely make use of the benefits that the idea has to offer, but I generally don't see the point at the moment, especially for businesses.