[mapsonburt]

I don't mean to be so arrogant as to suggest you are all wrong, but I think you're missing the real point of an App.. it isn't to do something that you could just as easily do on the web.. it's to take advantage of the functionality of the DEVICE. There are lots of junk apps out there that are just images of things you could just as easily do on the web... angry birds is a perfect example. There is no reason you couldn't play that game using flash on the web and for that reason alone, being an "app" is pointless for that game except to ensure that they can get paid for each instance vs per game or some such - of course games that take advantage of the accelerometers are an exception to this.

A "real" app is something that takes advantage of the fact that the device has capabilities OUTSIDE the web... for instance, imagine an application that knows your location and automatically finds the home for sale you are driving by, goes to the web and gets all the real estate info... allows you to do a virtual tour from the inside, displays the price, allows you to schedule an appointment and shows you on the map where all the nearest schools, etc are. That's something you can't do easily on the web (you'd have to tell it your current location), etc.

Take another extample, you are walking through the mall looking for items. You use your smartphone to scan a UPC code... it finds the price and does comparision shopping and tells you where you can find similar items (and whether or not they are in stock) at lower prices.. better yet, it tells the local stores you are in the market for such and such a device and allows the stores systems to make unsolicited offers or bids on your business! They know where you are so could give you that little extra incentive to walk to the other end of the mall (or drive across town - or have it shipped to your home).

True apps are things you can't really do on a desktop computer (and people aren't likely to be wandering around with their laptops turned on). THOSE types of apps are the ones I install on my Blackberry... Once the playbook comes along, I'll be a lot less interested in downloading games and such as I can get those from the web... but I'll be VERY interested in applications that take advantage of the fact that my device is on my person and knows where I am and what I'm doing.

When RIM says people don't need apps because of Flash, I think they are almost deliberately misleading - although I know they know how important they are as they are doing everything they can to get developers to build them. The Playbook won't be successful because it has 200K applications... but because it can run the REAL web (bypassing the need for 190K of the phony apps) and has 10K of REAL apps. We've seen a few - like the hospital application they showed at launch.

[JRSCCivic98]

I would think it is the coding of the apps. I used Air Apps quite a bit in my last job which was very Social Media intensive, the apps I used were great. TweetDeck in particular is amazing. So perhaps it was just the apps you came across.

Lol, it's funny you mention TweetDeck because that was going to be example I was going to use of an Air app I didn't like.

[Intosh]

I don't mean to be so arrogant as to suggest you are all wrong, but I think you're missing the real point of an App.. it isn't to do something that you could just as easily do on the web.. it's to take advantage of the functionality of the DEVICE. There are lots of junk apps out there that are just images of things you could just as easily do on the web... angry birds is a perfect example. There is no reason you couldn't play that game using flash on the web and for that reason alone, being an "app" is pointless for that game except to ensure that they can get paid for each instance vs per game or some such - of course games that take advantage of the accelerometers are an exception to this.

A "real" app is something that takes advantage of the fact that the device has capabilities OUTSIDE the web... for instance, imagine an application that knows your location and automatically finds the home for sale you are driving by, goes to the web and gets all the real estate info... allows you to do a virtual tour from the inside, displays the price, allows you to schedule an appointment and shows you on the map where all the nearest schools, etc are. That's something you can't do easily on the web (you'd have to tell it your current location), etc.

Take another extample, you are walking through the mall looking for items. You use your smartphone to scan a UPC code... it finds the price and does comparision shopping and tells you where you can find similar items (and whether or not they are in stock) at lower prices.. better yet, it tells the local stores you are in the market for such and such a device and allows the stores systems to make unsolicited offers or bids on your business! They know where you are so could give you that little extra incentive to walk to the other end of the mall (or drive across town - or have it shipped to your home).

True apps are things you can't really do on a desktop computer (and people aren't likely to be wandering around with their laptops turned on). THOSE types of apps are the ones I install on my Blackberry... Once the playbook comes along, I'll be a lot less interested in downloading games and such as I can get those from the web... but I'll be VERY interested in applications that take advantage of the fact that my device is on my person and knows where I am and what I'm doing.

When RIM says people don't need apps because of Flash, I think they are almost deliberately misleading - although I know they know how important they are as they are doing everything they can to get developers to build them. The Playbook won't be successful because it has 200K applications... but because it can run the REAL web (bypassing the need for 190K of the phony apps) and has 10K of REAL apps. We've seen a few - like the hospital application they showed at launch.

Web browsers can be location-awared, if not already.

Flash can access your device's microphone and webcam, so no reason it cannot access your phone/tablet's camera (to scan UPC code) too.

But native app is the way to go if performance is really important and for accessing the device/OS' unique features not available through standard web technologies (e.g. notification bar). That's why I said both native and web apps will co-exist.