Technology Prediction — Native App or Web App
History repeats itself; or has it ever.
When micro-computers first came out, I was writing client-server applications. At that time, I predicted web-based applications will proliferate and I positioned most of my clients on the right track. When smart phone first came out, native app was predominant. Now 5G is coming, soon web app will dominate, I believe.
The question is why things are the way they are.
I still dream about the days when I was writing PowerBuilder code on client-server system. It was 1994, there were stacks of machines that spit out thousands of 1.44MB diskettes within hours. My clients had to hire manual labor to label and stack 6 of them together, put them into courier package and send them out to their clients to install. That was the norm every time there was an upgrade to our programs. I still remember there was a time after the first few hundred installations our client discovered a significant error that we all overlooked and they had to repackage new diskettes overnight and do it all over again, not to mention the hazzle of managing communication to rightly install the right version of the client software.
At that time, web-based software did not have enough capability to take advantage of the native functionality of the micro-computer hardware. The micro-computer was slow, and the internet connection was even slower. Client-server solved that problem; half the application was already installed onto the micro-computer, so the only thing internet need to take care of is the data traffic, not loading the client-side software of the applications each and every time.
With the capacity of micro-computers increasing and now WiFi speed is hundreds of megabits per second, no wonder no one talks about client-server applications anymore.
In my opinion, smart phone is undergoing the same phenomenon. Native-app had more functionality and web-app has been playing a catch-up game. Nevertheless, 5G is coming, and our smart phone has gotten “smarter” every year to the point it now has the same capability of a micro-computer. I am confident that web-app will be dominating in the years to come.
Recently one of our clients has requested us to provide programming service on native-app and it is my job to advise them to reconsider web-app more seriously.
CONCLUSION
I’d like to quote the tips on shooting a moving target: “The concept behind intercept lead is that you have a predictable point where the target is going to be”. I think it is wiser not to spend time and effort developing on a technology that will become obsolete by the time it is ready for production.
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Rintagi is an open-source low-code development platform for deploying mission-critical applications built by Robocoder Corporation. Since 1999, Robocoder Corporation has used Rintagi to develop and maintain mission-critical database applications for reputable companies, spanning multiple industries.
