This take comes up a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves. iOS and macOS are the same operating system with two different UI stacks as demonstrated by the fact macOS can run iPad apps without...
Meanwhile, the iPad Pro still can’t dual-boot iPadOS and macOS or even virtualize macOS as an “app”
This take comes up a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves. iOS and macOS are the same operating system with two different UI stacks as demonstrated by the fact macOS can run iPad apps without virtualizing an entire other operating system or rebooting or similar.
The problem with iPad isn't that you can make it awful for tablet use by running a cursor-first UI desktop environment on it, it's that Apple doesn't give iPadOS users the freedom they give macOS users: to open the terminal like Macs, to run Cocoa (macOS) apps like Macs run Cocoa Touch (iOS), to get apps outside of the app store without Apple taking 30%-- nothing. There is no technical barrier to running Mac apps on iPad, especially that they both share an instruction set architecture now. It would just eat into Mac profits. That's why the iPad sucks now.
Other than that....
Yeah I agree with pretty much everything in this article.
EDIT: Also not sure if it's because of my aging A14 but the web app experience kinda sucks too
I share this because it’s an interesting piece about how web apps are taking over native apps, and while it starts about the iPad it’s more general than the title makes it seem.
I share this because it’s an interesting piece about how web apps are taking over native apps, and while it starts about the iPad it’s more general than the title makes it seem.
It’s true, web apps are so important nowadays. I love how iOS has really increased support in the last few years. I have definitely noticed lack of web app support in VisionOS. It’s a major pain...
It’s true, web apps are so important nowadays. I love how iOS has really increased support in the last few years. I have definitely noticed lack of web app support in VisionOS. It’s a major pain point.
I'm unsure of how growing up with a Chromebook will truly translate to software used in adulthood, especially in the workplace. Other than educational institutions, how many businesses are using...
When you combine Apple’s notorious App Store policies with the fact that a generation of students has been raised on Chromebooks in school (another miss for Apple and the iPad), now that those students are young developers entering the workforce, what do you think the end result is going to be? That truly native, modern iPad apps by the most popular web services essentially don’t exist anymore – and Apple should have seen it coming.
I'm unsure of how growing up with a Chromebook will truly translate to software used in adulthood, especially in the workplace. Other than educational institutions, how many businesses are using Google Docs and not MS Office? Enterprises are fully invested in the Microsoft stack, and platforms like Teams and SharePoint have deep integration with MS Office. I just don't see that going away soon, if ever.
I do agree that web apps are taking over in general, though. Regardless of if people want that to be the future or not. Using my previous example, people are pissed that the "new" MS Outlook is just a wrapper around the web client. Teams is most definitely doing this as well.
As the article shares, it's about development effort too. Shipping one version of the app is so much easier.
In my experience, newer and/or smaller companies have a pretty decent chance of using GSuite instead of MS Office, especially in tech hub cities. The older the establishment the more likely it is...
In my experience, newer and/or smaller companies have a pretty decent chance of using GSuite instead of MS Office, especially in tech hub cities. The older the establishment the more likely it is they’re using Office.
I think a big but undermentioned motivation for the push to web tech is that devs who can work with common front end web stacks are relatively inexpensive and easy to find relative to native dev counterparts. It doesn’t actually take that much to turn a good iPhone app into a good iPad app, but capable, experienced mobile devs command a higher price and can’t be reassigned to whatever other thing at the whims of corporate. Web devs are the closest thing that companies have to the “generic, interchangeable developer” they've been pining for since forever.
Anecdotes are not data, but I will say that in my industry I've worked for 3 large media agencies over the last 15 years or so that were all in on GSuite. Not to contradict that MS still rules the...
Anecdotes are not data, but I will say that in my industry I've worked for 3 large media agencies over the last 15 years or so that were all in on GSuite. Not to contradict that MS still rules the day, but it is a thing that happens. I have mixed opinions about it. Moving my client reporting to Sheets ended up being a huge advantage/time saver for me. Building and giving webinars in Slides was honestly a huge pain in the ass. YMMV.
Using my previous example, people are pissed that the "new" MS Outlook is just a wrapper around the web client. Teams is most definitely doing this as well.
As an aside, and again anecdotes are not data, I have noted over the last few years that the web versions as PWAs for Outlook and Teams seem to function better than the native versions even on Windows. The web versions of both have been better both stability-wise and feature-wise that I'm not surprised that they've overtaken the native versions. Even when I was on Windows these past few years before I switched over full-time to Linux, I would install and use the PWAs of Outlook and Teams in W11 because I had fewer issues with them. And it makes sense to prioritize that from a developer perspective because (as you say, "shipping one version of the app") it makes the apps platform-agnostic and more easily deployable.
This take comes up a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves. iOS and macOS are the same operating system with two different UI stacks as demonstrated by the fact macOS can run iPad apps without virtualizing an entire other operating system or rebooting or similar.
The problem with iPad isn't that you can make it awful for tablet use by running a cursor-first UI desktop environment on it, it's that Apple doesn't give iPadOS users the freedom they give macOS users: to open the terminal like Macs, to run Cocoa (macOS) apps like Macs run Cocoa Touch (iOS), to get apps outside of the app store without Apple taking 30%-- nothing. There is no technical barrier to running Mac apps on iPad, especially that they both share an instruction set architecture now. It would just eat into Mac profits. That's why the iPad sucks now.
Other than that....
Yeah I agree with pretty much everything in this article.
EDIT: Also not sure if it's because of my aging A14 but the web app experience kinda sucks too
I share this because it’s an interesting piece about how web apps are taking over native apps, and while it starts about the iPad it’s more general than the title makes it seem.
It’s true, web apps are so important nowadays. I love how iOS has really increased support in the last few years. I have definitely noticed lack of web app support in VisionOS. It’s a major pain point.
I'm unsure of how growing up with a Chromebook will truly translate to software used in adulthood, especially in the workplace. Other than educational institutions, how many businesses are using Google Docs and not MS Office? Enterprises are fully invested in the Microsoft stack, and platforms like Teams and SharePoint have deep integration with MS Office. I just don't see that going away soon, if ever.
I do agree that web apps are taking over in general, though. Regardless of if people want that to be the future or not. Using my previous example, people are pissed that the "new" MS Outlook is just a wrapper around the web client. Teams is most definitely doing this as well.
As the article shares, it's about development effort too. Shipping one version of the app is so much easier.
In my experience, newer and/or smaller companies have a pretty decent chance of using GSuite instead of MS Office, especially in tech hub cities. The older the establishment the more likely it is they’re using Office.
I think a big but undermentioned motivation for the push to web tech is that devs who can work with common front end web stacks are relatively inexpensive and easy to find relative to native dev counterparts. It doesn’t actually take that much to turn a good iPhone app into a good iPad app, but capable, experienced mobile devs command a higher price and can’t be reassigned to whatever other thing at the whims of corporate. Web devs are the closest thing that companies have to the “generic, interchangeable developer” they've been pining for since forever.
Anecdotes are not data, but I will say that in my industry I've worked for 3 large media agencies over the last 15 years or so that were all in on GSuite. Not to contradict that MS still rules the day, but it is a thing that happens. I have mixed opinions about it. Moving my client reporting to Sheets ended up being a huge advantage/time saver for me. Building and giving webinars in Slides was honestly a huge pain in the ass. YMMV.
As an aside, and again anecdotes are not data, I have noted over the last few years that the web versions as PWAs for Outlook and Teams seem to function better than the native versions even on Windows. The web versions of both have been better both stability-wise and feature-wise that I'm not surprised that they've overtaken the native versions. Even when I was on Windows these past few years before I switched over full-time to Linux, I would install and use the PWAs of Outlook and Teams in W11 because I had fewer issues with them. And it makes sense to prioritize that from a developer perspective because (as you say, "shipping one version of the app") it makes the apps platform-agnostic and more easily deployable.