Rob Brooks-Bilson has a post in which he asks what he’s missing about Apollo. He mentions that he thinks the technology provides some amazing possibilities (true) but he doesn’t like the idea of dozens of new applications being installed on his machine. It struck a cord because I’ve had the same thoughts on Apollo as I’ve come to understand more and more about it.
I think there are two things to consider, which is one reason why I think there is some misunderstanding about Apollo. One part of that is that you will be able to build desktop applications using web technologies regardless of whether or not you are planning to leverage web services and build a desktop Rich Internet Application. It really opens up the desktop to a range of web developers and while we think about web services powering most of the Apollo apps, that may not be the case for some. I think this will see limited use, but for people that only want an entry to the desktop, this provides a cross-platform, easy way to do that with either Flash or Ajax/DHTML.
The second part is where I think some of the concern arises. Apollo gives web developers the ability to turn their web-based Rich Internet Applications into desktop Rich Internet Applications. If every user does that, there will be a ton of applications out there and you may end up with dozens of applications on your desktop. I hope that doesn’t happen.
I think users are smart enough to decide what applications are worth installing and which applications they want to use in the web. I hope that we don’t see every web application developer create an Apollo version. Furthermore, I hope that a majority of Apollo applications have web-based counterparts. There are some applications that I want only on the web, and if the only version is Apollo, I will actually be less likely to install the application. But there are some applications that I think are a great fit for Apollo. I use Goowy for my mail client, and I hope they develop an Apollo application that lets me synchronize my email offline.
Is Apollo going to be a bit like the wild west when it comes out? Absolutely. There are going to be some abysmal examples of desktop Rich Internet Applications. But there will also be some fantastic, innovative uses that prove there is a compelling link between the web and the desktop. Users will be discerning, and Apollo developers will have to work hard to make sure their application is worth the download. And as I said, if developers are smart, they will offer the web-based applications alongside their Apollo apps. That way users can really choose, and Rich Internet Applications can make their lives easier. That’s what Apollo is about – enhancing the user experience by providing a cross-platform runtime that uses web technology to build great desktop experiences.
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