First, let me apologize for any typos here as I'm about to get on a plane AND using my friend's first generation netbook (a.k.a. the ones with the small keyboards).

But after reading Mike Brophy's post on Apple I had to add one thing.  Though first I want to share a quote.  The whole article's good but this gives you his basic point...

The next obvious challenge is that web apps have been second-class citizens in terms of functionality compared to native iPhone apps. It’s true that web apps on the iPhone previously had limited potential as they couldn’t access location services, the accelerometer, or the core graphics engine, but with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 the situation is improving – geolocation can now be tapped from a web app. Games with the robust graphics of Assasin’s Creed won’t be possible, but games aren’t taking the brunt of the ax-wielding AppStore Reviewers – innovative and useful apps such as the Google Voice app are. The first question a developer should ask before writing a line of code is “can this be done as a web app” and, if so, it should be done as a web app.

(I made a similar point here by the way)

The point I wanted to add  (to his otherwise well made argument) is this.  We live in a world where most tech pundits believe the momentum is shifting from desktop apps to web apps.  The crunchpad from my very last post is a web only machine.  You have Google Apps, Zoho and others making viable replacements for desktop apps while Adobe, Microsoft and others race to make richer development environments for the web space.

So why is everyone pushing the App store on the iPhone (or any other mobile device for that matter)?  Did we not learn our lesson from the desktop? 

Don't get me wrong.  If you're making a game or need to use the camera then you need to look at a native app.  But otherwise you really need to look at creating a web app.  Which, as an added bonus, will open your app to all the Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile users as well.

(And those who think iPhone Web Apps are dead really need to pull out their iPhone and visit that little link in their favorites)

I think my CrunchPad dreams are fading.

I’m not sure it’s been reflected on this blog but I’ve become more and more enamored with the idea of the Crunchpad.  Not for myself (I’ll probably end up buying Apple’s tablet to be perfectly honest) but for my agency where I saw tons of potential.

You see, when you’re trying to completely digitize a company you run in to a few road blocks.  One of the most notable ones is the idea that documents are “locked in the computer” and can’t be carried to meetings, get togethers, etc…

So your goal here, as an IT person, is to frame the digital documents as being “in a centralized place” and then trying to get staff to sign on by giving them as many portals to that “place” as possible.  In doing this you can (a) discredit the idea that documents are “locked in the computer” and (b) reinforce the idea that digital documents are available everywhere and in fact more  portable than their physical counterparts.

From that perspective the CrunchPad seemed like a dream come true.  A dead cheap, web based tablet that people could carry around with them and access all their documents (not to mention training videos, research on the web, etc…).  I mean, there have always been tablets.  But they’ve always been expensive and that’s a problem for mass rollout.  But at $200 to $300 even if the staff drops the thing it’s no big loss. 

But start getting above that and the dream starts to die.  Honestly the $200 to $300 jump was quite the hit.  But now we’re looking at $400 and that might be a deal breaker.   Combine that with a few of the other limitations (see link above) and a 3g connection that couldn’t be more useless to me and this might be the end of of that dream. 

The jury’s still out and I’ll look forward to seeing what comes from here.  I still have hope.  Just a little less of it now.

Addendum: A few quick e-mails I got after posting this suggested a netbook.  It’s a good suggestion and I’ve actually been trying to push 10” netbooks as desktop replacements to those with lower requirements.  But the netbook is designed around “desktop computer” usage model and that registers with users.  The beauty of a tablet is that it replaces a clipboard that you’d already be carrying in your hand and that makes it register with users as a replacement for paper documents.

Addendum #2: First, let me say thanks to all those who have e-mailed me on this.  As someone who never checks his traffic numbers I find it utterly terrifying that I've areadly gotten 9 e-mails on something I posted 2 hours ago but thanks none the less.  For the record I am aware of existing Internet tablets, most notably the Nokia N800, that are at or around the same price range.  But in my experience tablets that require pens just don't work.  People lose the pens, break the pens, try to (I swear  to God this actually happened) use actual pens on the device, etc...  Touch is the only way this paticular dream happens.