"Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc"

@edent — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 11:34:08 +0000

11 years ago to the day, I was at a tech conference. It was 3 year after the iPhone had launched its app SDK. Those of us who had been in the mobile game a while had already spent years developing apps for Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows CE, and at least a dozen other OSes which I've since scrubbed from my memory.

But apps were the hip "new" thing, apparently. And there were a lot of people who were passionately invested in the idea the Steve Jobs™️ would save us all.

And, some of us, thought this was bunkum. With this memorable comparison being made:

11 years later, and I think Jeremy Keith (@adactio) was right.

For those of you too young to remember, a LaserDisc was like a CD ROM about the size of a vinyl record⁰.

The LaserDisc was, I think it is fair to say, not a commercial success. In the 1980s, the BBC built an amazing Doomsday¹ Project on LaserDisc. It had a prototype version of Street View. But a few years later, there was no hardware capable of playing the discs.

The same is true of most modern smartphones. If you wrote an app for an early version of iOS or Android, it simply won't run on modern hardware or software. APIs have changed, SDKs weren't designed with forward compatibility, and app store requirements have evolved.

The web has none of that. The earliest websites are viewable on modern browsers². Sure, sometimes they might render in unexpected ways. And you might hope the servers they run on have been updated with security patches. But a website from the 1990s still works three decades later.

An app released a single decade ago is unlikely to run.

Even if the OS had a compatibility mode, it still requires the developer to stay up to date with all the various changes to app store policies. App stores are a gatekeeper.

The web doesn't have gatekeepers³. If you pay for your domain and hosting, your site will be viewable.

Of course, there are still some things which the web can't do. And there are some things where users prefer an in-app experience rather than tabbing through a browser.

And, of course, conferences are for big discussions rather than subtle nuance!

It's worth having a look through all the Tweets from the day. I'm sure some people have long since deleted their messages or accounts. But there's still a treasure-trove of wisdom from when we were all much younger and much more self-confident.

I particularly like this snarky video from Relly Annett-Baker:

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/If-books-were-created-like-most-websites.mp4

Ironically, many of the web links are now dead. But they've mostly been captured by the Internet Archive to be enjoyed for many years to come.

I wonder whether apps will become part of a digital dark ages which are lost to the future?

If you don't get either of those references, you are too short for this ride. Don't get old. It's a trap! ↩︎
Or Domesday. Take your pick. ↩︎
The notable exception is those websites built with proprietary technology like Flash. ↩︎
OK, well, it is complicated. An ISP or CDN could block you. Optional local filters could also restrict your access. WIPO might rule your domain violates copyright. But it is all a bit more flexible than "Apple says no". ↩︎

Access to Clean Water vs Access To Mobile Phones in Africa

@edent — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:16:07 +0000

I've accidentally caused a little Twitter storm over my remarks at Update Conference yesterday.

During my talk, I mentioned the following statistic:

In Africa, there is better access to mobile phones than there is access to clean drinking water.

However, on Twitter, that's got mangled into:

There are more people with access to mobile Internet in South Africa than have access to clean water.

Understandably, there's been a bit of questioning of that statistic!

So, I had researched the stat before trotting it out and I am confident it is accurate - but here's what I've found out specifically in South Africa.

"Statistics SA said [...] that 93% of South African households in 2010 had access to safe water in 2010."

That doesn't account for how far away the safe water was - and a whole host of other factors like inside plumbing etc.

"The South African mobile market broke through the 100% penetration barrier during Q3 08 to finish the quarter on 101.8%. The total market reached 44.51m customers."

100% penetration could mean only 50% of the population each with two phones (one for personal use, one for work etc), there's a lot of fudge factor in those numbers. But the growth rate in South Africa is stunning - estimated at 120% penetration in 2011.

What this means is that the vast majority of South Africans have access to both safe water and a mobile phone. It may not be their own tap, they may have to travel a few miles to send an SMS - but the access is there.

For the whole of Africa, access to clean water is estimated to be 46% - whereas mobile phone penetration is estimated to be 50%.

I wasn't able to specifically find any statistics about GPRS / mobile internet use which I could quote with any confidence.

So, I hope that clears that up a bit!

Update!

Some thoughts from Twitter

update11 – Terence Eden’s Blog

"Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc"

Access to Clean Water vs Access To Mobile Phones in Africa

Update!