Comment by programminggeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by programminggeek | Hacker News Reader

programminggeek

The biggest disruption being that the phone, mp3 player, email, etc. were just "apps" and none was any more important than the others. So, instead of making a phone that is great for just one segment (see the ill fated ESPN phone), the phone is now a platform with personalized features for each user via apps and it's always on, always connected, always up to date.

Funny enough, the web is being disrupted by smartphone apps and yet web devs are crying "fad" just like the hardware guys were yelling "fad" when the iPhone came out, but web apps on desktops aren't growing like mobile is (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/07/mobile-is-where-the-growth-i...)... and so what happens to all the web app companies who are just hoping mobile doesn't kill their web apps or web sites?

In many industries it's as simple as making a product that does 80% or 20% of what the leading product does, but has a iPhone, iPad, Android app and you're likely to make sales on that fact alone. It's like going from desktop to web all over again.

I'd place less emphasis on "apps". Remember, the original iPhone was released with a total of zero third-party apps; all third-party content and functionality was delivered via the Web.

The disruptive event was the sudden confluence of always-available data, a decent web browser, and an interface friendly enough to make use of it. "Apps" had been around for years on the "smartphones" of yesteryear, be it J2ME, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, etc. They were a clunky mess, however, and you had to pull out a stylus or fuddle around with a tiny joystick to use them. Their browsers just plain sucked.

Webkit on a device that could render full-screen Web pages like candy is what Apple contributed to the cellular arena, and that is what changed the game. Coincidentally, the browser is the main point of what reviewers of the era missed; most of them were lamenting the lack of apps.

I'd agree. Connectivity was the game changer. Functional Internet everywhere? Sign me the fuck up.

Native mobile apps in my mind simply bridge the user experience gap that HTML5 is having a hard time filling. It does some crunching too, but most apps that are worth their salt are either games or apps that do some processing before or after connecting to the Internet.

all third-party content and functionality was delivered via the Web.

Or apps installed via jailbreak methods. My recollection of the time was that while the iPhone was certainly an interesting device, it was the third-party apps that made it a "must have" device.

> the web is being disrupted by smartphone apps

What does this mean? Christensen has a specific definition in mind when he uses the word "disrupt" (which definition is being used in the linked article), and I can't see how it fits into this sentence.

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