Absolutely any computer/phone/tablet has the concept of applications.
Web apps remove initial friction of installation, and for big apps not even that much because you still need to download it and run it. But they also pay up this gain, with huge interest, for every single second you use the app. This is not benefitting the users. The bottom line is dire.
However removing initial friction is all about getting your foot in the door. It's like selling a printer under cost and then you get them with the ink. Get them the first drug dose free, and then you get them when they're dependent. Offer a cheap design, and then you destroy them with the manufacturing.
A story as old as the world, of which this "web megaapp" model is a tiny microcosm of. The web is an excellent platform for small to medium apps. Photoshop is gigantic. And Figma and the other rest of its ilk are absolutely insufferable and I'm saying this as a webdev. I would be significantly happier if these products did NOT exist.
Heck if we took out WASM and these kind of products went away I'd consider it a net positive.
Web apps remove initial friction of installation, and for big apps not even that much because you still need to download it and run it. But they also pay up this gain, with huge interest, for every single second you use the app. This is not benefitting the users. The bottom line is dire.
However removing initial friction is all about getting your foot in the door. It's like selling a printer under cost and then you get them with the ink. Get them the first drug dose free, and then you get them when they're dependent. Offer a cheap design, and then you destroy them with the manufacturing.
A story as old as the world, of which this "web megaapp" model is a tiny microcosm of. The web is an excellent platform for small to medium apps. Photoshop is gigantic. And Figma and the other rest of its ilk are absolutely insufferable and I'm saying this as a webdev. I would be significantly happier if these products did NOT exist.
Heck if we took out WASM and these kind of products went away I'd consider it a net positive.