|
The AppStream Blog
Stream of Consciousness
January 9, 2008
I Want My AppTV!
-Brad Rowland, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, AppStream Inc.
When one of AppStream’s consumer ISV’s logged over 50,000 active, unmanaged, internet users streaming applications to their PC’s last week it was a new milestone for our team, and I think slightly historical. Further evidence that streaming isn’t just about a way to deliver applications when needed, but it’s back to the basics and promises of on-demand. Why is on-demand so important? Why is it important at all? Why did acronyms like ASP become the most used phrases world-wide after Y2K? Why the near religious fervor about ‘service’ orientation? Is it just about having it now?
Certainly there is something to the ‘now’ factor, when consumers can choose to download an app for 10 hours or have it running in a couple of minutes. I’d choose a couple of minutes, and heck, so would my entire family and all my friends. But is that all there is to it? How about keeping me connected to the mother ship and applying patches without intervention? Um, yeah now that it works pretty well with my desktop OS, I’d prefer that on everything actually. 15 years after the hobbyist aspect of managing my own PC has worn thin, I really don’t want to do PC support at home. I also love the idea of getting to keep local app execution instead of switching to really mediocre web versions. Anytime I hear ‘web version’ I just think of flash based ‘whack a mole.’ I just can’t imagine web versions of a lot of the things I use my PC for. How about getting a brand new PC and not having to install anything, just logging in to my internet app portal and there you go, up and running? Would that change anything? It might. I might like that.
On-demand has always meant a whole new way of looking at everything, but especially your hardware. As a consumer, I would replace an outdated PC without thinking twice if I didn’t have to worry about reinstalling my applications. My fragile, flakey applications. My fragile, flakey, missing installation CD applications. And having a ‘geek’ drive to my house and do it for me is not really a consideration. My fragile, flakey, missing CD applications with the license key that I got in email and I’m sure I wrote down somewhere. Men don’t ask for directions, or have someone come to their house to install their applications. They painfully take up every last ounce of their free time to support their home PC, kids laptops, and wife’s Macbook. But it’s hard to believe that we’ve let it get this out of control. My hardware should not be eternally connected with my applications, til death do us part. How did we get talked into this? Imagine having to go to a specific TV to watch the superbowl, and ONLY on that TV. Or if you had to INSTALL the superbowl and download the latest drivers before kickoff. There would be a lot fewer sports fans. The NFL would not be where it is today, which makes me wonder where on-demand could take the tech industry.
But if I could simply have a new PC drop-shipped to my house, connect to the internet, login to my application provider portals, and ‘voila’ – MY applications are returned to me unharmed and I am immediately back to work, focused on priorities like diligently selecting the latest desktop wallpaper, that could really change things. Sounds hard to believe, but with streamed applications that’s how it happens here in my office, and now on the internet with select ISV’s. Why can’t I have it at home for everything? Can the day be far behind when we sit around the gas fireplace and tell our grandchildren tall tales about the days you’d have to click ‘setup’ and ‘next’? I hope not. I really hope that artifacts like plastic CD’s being replaced by online music and streaming videos, I can someday soon never have to use my “s” key to type setup, or select a temporary installation location for my internet application download. Instead I’d like to use technology to start making my life a little easier and demand things from it, not vice-versa.
 Back to News & Events | Up to top
|
