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You should read the article. To sum it up: the web beat desktop apps because traditional OS were not designed for a networked world. The iPhone however was des

You should read the article. To sum it up: the web beat desktop apps because traditional OS were not designed for a networked world. The iPhone however was designed for a networked world so it didn't have all the limitations of desktop OS. The web wasn't designed for a mobile world so it had a lot of limitations: hard to do a good UX, passwords to type on a tiny keyboard, no offline mode (or so complex to use that no dev do), URL vs app icons...

radicalbyte 5y ago
Only that's not how the world works. The world works with power: Apple used their power to make strangle the entire idea of the web on mobile by putting a break on change. Why? Mobile web tech helps their competitors more than it helps them. If Apple's own platform / APIs had had the same rate of change as they effectively forced on the mobile web, then they would be a decade behind Android. This is exactly the same thing as Microsoft did in the 90s with productivity software. They had secret undocumented APIs which made Office a fantastic experience and non-office "meh".
- radicalbyte 5y ago
  If you look carefully you'll see this tactic all over: throw mud in your opponents eyes to slow their rate of change. See: US banking (in the EU I can transfer cash, instantly, for free to a friend's bank account and have been able to do so for a decade), Fossil fuel vs Climate change, most commercial standard bodies. It's everywhere.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    > US banking (in the EU I can transfer cash, instantly, for free to a friend's bank account and have been able to do so for a decade) This one actually seems like a fault of the US government dragging its feet on making advancements on a nationwide protocol for transferring money and staying stuck on ACH. So much so that, that the biggest banks had to get together and create their own system 10 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle_(payment_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle_(payment_service) > Launched in April 2011, clearXchange was originally owned by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Supposedly, the US government is finally rolling out a proper system in 2023: https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.h...
- andrekandre 5y ago
  > Apple used their power to make strangle the entire idea of the web on mobile by putting a break on change. but this seems to neglect the fact that 1. apple/jobs wanted web tech initially for apps 2. native app devs were beating down the doors for access to native, not web apis
  - radicalbyte 5y ago
    That was very very early on. Once they were big and Android came along the strategy was turned around.

radicalbyte 5y ago

Only that's not how the world works. The world works with power: Apple used their power to make strangle the entire idea of the web on mobile by putting a break on change. Why? Mobile web tech helps their competitors more than it helps them. If Apple's own platform / APIs had had the same rate of change as they effectively forced on the mobile web, then they would be a decade behind Android. This is exactly the same thing as Microsoft did in the 90s with productivity software. They had secret undocumented APIs which made Office a fantastic experience and non-office "meh".

radicalbyte 5y ago
If you look carefully you'll see this tactic all over: throw mud in your opponents eyes to slow their rate of change. See: US banking (in the EU I can transfer cash, instantly, for free to a friend's bank account and have been able to do so for a decade), Fossil fuel vs Climate change, most commercial standard bodies. It's everywhere.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  > US banking (in the EU I can transfer cash, instantly, for free to a friend's bank account and have been able to do so for a decade) This one actually seems like a fault of the US government dragging its feet on making advancements on a nationwide protocol for transferring money and staying stuck on ACH. So much so that, that the biggest banks had to get together and create their own system 10 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle_(payment_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle_(payment_service) > Launched in April 2011, clearXchange was originally owned by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Supposedly, the US government is finally rolling out a proper system in 2023: https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.h...
andrekandre 5y ago
> Apple used their power to make strangle the entire idea of the web on mobile by putting a break on change. but this seems to neglect the fact that 1. apple/jobs wanted web tech initially for apps 2. native app devs were beating down the doors for access to native, not web apis
- radicalbyte 5y ago
  That was very very early on. Once they were big and Android came along the strategy was turned around.