Web 2.0 and Internet Appliances
Remember Internet Appliances? I mean products like like Microsoft’s WebTV or Oracle’s NIC? Take a look at this dated rundown of the market or read the press releases about them from Oracle or IBM if you want a good laugh. The IA market failed miserably, ultimately because it couldn’t deliver a significantly better experience than traditional computing, in terms of usability, functionality, or cost. While they did change the market (remember life before the $1000 PC) ultimately they couldn’t bring down costs low enough to compete against either traditional PC’s or embedded systems.
While this is worth discussing just for the schadenfreude, I actually have a reason for talking about this. I was reading a post about running an entire business on SaaS and another switching businesses to a Web 2.0 environment when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Web 2.0 is fulfilling the dream of internet appliances.
A stretch … perhaps. But bear with me. The idea behind IA’s was to provide super simple access to internet services and take away the complications of managing the desktop. Tell me that Google hasn’t taken a quantum leap in that direction with Search, GMail, Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets, and Maps. Tell me that Yahoo hasn’t done the same with Flikr (I don’t use Yahoo much so I don’t know their products as well).
Web 2.0 is effectively turning the computer into an internet appliance where it makes sense, but without sacrificing the advantages of running a fully functioning machine. It is making it possible to actually run a business from the web. This is going to radically change the business environment, at least as much as the transition from the mainframe to the PC. I can’t wait to see how everything will shake out …
