The New York Times recently published a couple of articles written by Conor Dougherty. These articles point to what Dougherty described as diminished mobile app consumer access to the Internet. This shrinking online accessibility, Dougherty argues, can be attributed to mobile apps, themselves, which run fine without web browsing.

But the performance of every one of the apps mentioned in these articles, as I am completely sure Dougherty would agree, is entirely dependent on the Internet. The real issue for Dougherty, I would surmise, is the transparent nature of this performance, which, somehow “happens” without any requirement for user intervention. Therefore, Dougherty argues, the quality of the personal computing experience for app consumers, has been degraded.

Of course none of this performance would be possible without “web server platforms” like node.js. These app components add web server functionality. So the apps can perform, online, without a web browser. There is not much new about this beyond the fact node.js is an example of how to achieve this performance with JavaScript, which is a very popular scripting language at present.

The point I am trying to make is developers and the ISVs supporting their efforts need to be sensitive to public perception. Dougherty is not writing in a vacuum. His articles are read because consumers are interested in the topics covered. So it is likely safe to say some segment of the consuming public feels the same way, regardless of whether or not the public perception is actually correct.

Maintaining sensitivity to this type of public notion (perhaps “perception” is not the right word) should, in my opinion, translate into some type of communications effort (PR or MARCOM) to better inform consumers how apps actually work. At the same time, perhaps developers and ISVs have an opportunity to bake in some of the “choice” Dougherty finds missing from the app computing experience. Dougherty longs for a “unifying link”. Would it make sense for someone to build in a method of bolting otherwise unconnected apps together? Perhaps with some type of search feature? I am not saying yes, or no, but, perhaps someone would like to check it out.

If you find a market for these feature, do let me know.

Ira Michael Blonder

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