When designing our last product we had a tough time deciding whether it should be a smart-client desktop application or a browser-based web application. Prior versions of the program were desktop apps with a component for online synchronization. However, the past few years had seen a few web-only competitors spring up in the marketplace. It was not an easy decision to make. For a variety of reasons we decided to go the desktop application route. Some applications are just not meant to run in a web browser and there were too many critical features we couldn’t pull off properly.
With all the buzz around Web 2.0 and the push for more and more desktop software to run in a web browser you can’t help but wonder if the mass-market desktop application is an endangered species. The Museum of Modern Betas now catalogs over 1,000 active beta web apps.
Recently, however, I’ve been seeing some evidence that desktop applications aren’t dying. They appear to be evolving into a hybrid offering the network capabilities of a web-application combined with the flexible GUI toolset offered by desktop apps. Cozi, The New York Times Reader and Delicious Library would all work on the web but the experience outside of a browser is so much more compelling. I tell you we’re about to see the return of desktop applications. It may take a few creative successes to get the ball rolling, but I feel that it’s inevitable. All that’s missing is a spiffy logo.