

Where are the killer RIA apps? - techdog
http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/04/where-are-ria-killer-apps.html

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ojbyrne
"Killer apps" was a term originally coined to describe apps that drove
hardware purchases - 123 for the PC, Pagemaker for the Mac. It seems to me we
live in an era of ubiquitous hardware, so perhaps the concept is obsolete.

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dantheman
I'll argue that their are still killer apps, but just not on the desktop. For
instance, video game systems (Wii, Xbox, etc) need to have a killer app when
they're first released to drive sales, to encourage more development etc.

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ojbyrne
Sure, but what hardware do rich internet apps drive purchases of?

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jokermatt999
They don't drive purchases; they drive adaption. A user is less likely to
bother downloading a framework if the app they want it for doesn't look that
great. They may decide it's not worth it, and not install it. If someone makes
a truly "killer app" for one of these competing technologies, it would
theoretically lead more people to install whatever framework it was on.

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bbuffone
There is a fundamental problem with RIAs; the open web is a much better
platform to build applications on. Every day browsers get better and the
things you can do with HTML, JavaScript and CSS are for 90% of the
applications a good solution. The other 10% of the applications a developer
has a choice where RIA might make sense but 5% of those applications are
probably better off being a desktop applications.

This leaves 5% of the applications which would benefit from an RIA, these apps
are typically internal data entry or dashboard applications which don't get a
lot of press.

Over the last 6 years I have worked in the RIA space and it really comes down
to a simple question. "Would you want Google to rewrite the Google Analytics
or Gmail in Flex/JavaFX/Silverlight?"

For me the answer is NO!. The best applications today are open web with Ajax /
Flash enhancements to improve users experience.

Google Analytics uses Flash and Ajax in this exact way; Flash for the charts
and the time span widgets but the rest of the application is HTML. Ajax is
used for doing sorting and paging of data.

This is why there will never be a killer RIA application.

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kwamenum86
Typically RIAs take longer to build and polish than the slightly more
lightweight HTML/AJAX combos (which some have argued are killer apps too.) If
you want to create something big and you see relatively simple web apps
dominating with RIAs often becoming bottom feeders (twitter clients are a
great example) then what technology would you choose to build the next big
idea?

Many RIAs do not run as smoothly as they could because they are jam packed
with graphics and effects or there is just too much information flowing
between client and server to run smoothly. This does not allow you to churn
out many quick prototypes to try and hook users. Also, for many users standard
internet applications are rich enough. I have seen plenty of really cool RIAs
but none with a chance to play int he mainstream (save for maybe the Twitter
clients.)

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omnipath
Will there be killer RIA apps? The only way I can see it happening is

1) when they become light-weight enough that they become preferred apps on
light-weight devices, i.e. cell phones, pdas, MIDs, etc. As right now, they're
more processor intensive (at least Silverlight and Flash/Flex/Air are) than
apps written with more established technology. Causing battery life to be
dismal.

2) Internet connection becomes truly widespread. (Only spelunking caves and
Montana should be the places where you can't get internet connection.) And not
only widespread, but fast, too. No point in having Rich Internet Applications
if the Internet part is a part of the bottleneck.

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pedalpete
Their are great RIA, but it's the app that is more important. I started using
Prezi yesterday, and it is truly amazing. But it isn't amazing because of RIA,
it's a killer because of the product, and it just happens to be a RIA (isn't
RIE more suitable? Rich Internet Expeirence).

It's like asking 'where are the killer python scripts'. the technology doesn't
matter as much as the product. 123 for PC, and Pagemaker for Mac where killer
apps not because of the platform they were created on , but because they
replaced the previous methods of accomplishing the task.

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edw519
Patience. Patience. I'm working as fast as I can.

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seertaak
No you're not; you're making pointless (albeit funny!) remarks on hacker news.

Get back to work! -- oh wait.... doh!

