

Ask HN: Have web apps been commoditized? - stcredzero

Am I too paranoid, or have web apps as a whole already become commodities?  I started thinking this after reading this post:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=656804<p>It seems a bit too easy to create a web app nowadays.  There are a few businesses that make hosting easy, and there are a variety of 3rd party tools that help as well.  Amazon and Google give the entrepreneur access to seemingly unbounded resources.  There's even a web app for creating web apps.  (http://appjet.com/)  Is it over already?  Are web apps already heavily commoditized, and how would your own app escape this trap?  Does the ease of creating a web app now actually make it harder to be an entrepreneur in this field?<p>Mattresses are commodities now.  Companies now try to increase their margins by striving to convince consumers that their product is somehow special.  A few companies are attempting to distinguish themselves technologically.  Other companies use local advantages in manufacturing and distribution to compete.<p>Are the same forces at play in the web app space?  Or is it an error to think of web applications as a whole as an industry?<p>EDIT: Perhaps I asked the wrong question.  Perhaps I should have asked: Has web app <i>programming</i> become a commodity?  (Or is it just perceived as one now?)
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mixmax
This is not the end. This is the beginning

Remember that HN users are opinion leaders, and the first ones to adopt new
tech. Heck, they _make_ the new tech.

My brother, my neighbour and my boss have never even heard the term webapp
before, it's still in its very early phases. And these are the people that
actually buy stuff. They have money and they spend it.

And here's the thing: Making a webapp is easy, making a company is hard.
There's a long way from hacking an app together over the weekend to a
sustainable company that will pay your bills. But if you're willing to put in
the effort and time you can make a good living. You might even make a great
business.

~~~
crystalarchives
I completely agree with mixmax - webapps are just beginning to garner interest
in a variety of different niches.

Most of the webapps you see are geared towards tech minded folks, but there's
still a world of opportunity in other sectors.

For example, my startup provides real time analytics data for universities
regarding their student enrollment. Nobody in this space is using a cloud
hosted solution. Our competition has to install servers, go through the
university IT department, and batch process reports... we're blowing people
out of the water.

Another example is Woobius, which is basically providing a Basecamp for
construction workers.

I believe that webapps are only going to get more popular as the younger, more
tech-savvy generation is moving into the decision making roles in the
workforce.

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parkern
You make a interesting observation. I think the reason it seems so popular
right now is because every web app created these days caters to
creatives/freelancers/webmasters. So they circulate in this area a lot. I mean
I can name 20 different time tracking, invoicing, and project collaboration
apps.

I see less "web apps" and more "consumer applications" in the next few years.
Online software that is set out to meet a certain need in our lives.

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bbraasch
the programming contest will get easier as higher level abstractions hide the
tricky stuff, but the idea contest will also be liberated. Imagine a world
where you could for example launch FMyLife.com without worring about IE6.

lightweight interfaces will be able to power sophisticated implementations,
and someone has to write those.

the market size will increase. dogs will be able to understand complex event
loops, just as before.

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fauigerzigerk
A commodity is something that has no or very little qualitative
differentiation. All items are basically the same, and suppliers therefore
compete only on price. So what is that uniform quality of all web apps that
makes them completely interchangeable? If you can name it, I would say yes,
web apps are commodities. Otherwise they are not commodities and it is
irrelevant that they are easier to make than a few years ago (if that's
actually the case)

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stcredzero
Most webapps are mostly CRUD, with a few specialized screens and a few Roles.

Plastic is a commodity. Injection molded plastic comes in a variety of colors,
shapes, and densities. It can be used to create very specialized
parts/products.

Perhaps my question is misphrased. Perhaps I should have asked, "Is web app
_programming_ a commodity?"

~~~
thetrumanshow
Plastic, at least, has to be formed into a product by someone. The value
derrived from act of forming something depends on the output of the process.
Therefore, the act of forming has little value if the output is of little
value to the market.

What you're observing in our industry, likely without realizing it, is that no
one is innovating. There are no Thomas Edisons.

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lacker
Appjet shut down, you know. So there isn't even a good web app that lets you
do what appjet used to let you do!

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menloparkbum
I remember people saying this back in 2001.

