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How do I start a web store?

Will the release of the Mac App Store and a wave of similar products start making Web Browsers obsolete?

  • Technology, Silicon Valley, Apple, Internet

  • Answer:

    I highly doubt it. The way I see it, web browsers and the sort of single-purpose apps you find in app stores each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The browser is a portal to the wider internet, which is open and not censored by any one governing body. It is a democratic publishing platform, as well as a platform for cloud-based applications that do not rely on local storage or processing power. As of the current state of web app development, these products in general don't provide as rich an experience as the best designed native applications for Mac, iOS, Android, etc. Apps have the advantage of running natively on the machine, so they are capable of providing a richer, full-featured experience for their designated function (although evolving web technologies like HTML5 are narrowing this gap, if not closing it). Of course, there's no substitute for great design, and looking at the state of the Mac App Store as of launch there are plenty of poorly designed apps that don't offer much value and certainly don't pose a danger to the web or the browser. For the open dissemination of information, you can't beat the web, and for that reason alone I don't see browsers becoming obsolete. On the application front, web apps and native apps each complement each other and I don't think either will make the other obsolete.

Scott Polhemus at Quora Visit the source

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I think what we're seeing are steps to finally make consumer-friendly the process of owning, using, maintaining and enjoying a computer. The Mac App Store (and the chrome store, the ovi store, the iOS store the zune marketplace, etc.) is(/are) making it far easier for far more people to pay for software. No more convoluted purchase and installation processes, no licensing headaches, no upgrade issues. A process simple enough for people who aren't massive geeks to understand and participate in. It's as if we're only now realising that downloading an archive, extracting it, mounting a volume, running an installer, restarting the machine, entering a serial, checking for upgrades and hoping nothing else breaks in the process is far above and beyond the capabilities of the overwhelming majority of people who want to be able to jump onto their devices to do everyday things. It seems pathetically obvious in retrospect that that was never going to work for most people. You'll not replace the web browser with this kind of curated 'app' experience, because the browser is the antithesis to that very premise, it is your curation of the internet, not that as defined by some intermediary organisation. I'll still want to be able to browse idly and check out the latest XYZ, and the web browser is still going to be the place to that, it may just be that once I get there I can choose to download an application which makes going there a second time a lot easier.

Stuart Frisby

I don't think so. It will certainly make downloading apps off web pages obsolete, though. Adapting the smartphone model to desktop/notebook PCs is the future -- everyone knows that (Google, Microsoft, Apple). The only problem is that the "app" model is powered by cheap product (even if high quality). People are just not used to paying $999 for the Photoshop app :)

Luis Levy

The balance of power between native apps and browser based software swings constantly.  The app store is another blow for native apps.  Initiatives like google's native client (NaCl) and GPU accelerated javascript are designed to enable high performance apps that can compete with native apps.

Pete Griffiths

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